| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: A fresh replenishment of gleam and glow,
And each effulgence, foremost flashed forth,
Perisheth one by one. Nor otherwise
Can things be seen in sunlight, lest alway
The fountain-head of light supply new light.
Indeed your earthly beacons of the night,
The hanging lampions and the torches, bright
With darting gleams and dense with livid soot,
Do hurry in like manner to supply
With ministering heat new light amain;
Are all alive to quiver with their fires,-
Of The Nature of Things |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: But the northern outlet is a huge confluence and tumult of waters.
You see the set of the tide far out in the lake, sliding, driving,
crowding, hurrying in with smooth currents and swirling eddies,
toward the corner of escape. By the rocky cove where the Island
House peers out through the fir-trees, the current already has a
perceptible slope. It begins to boil over hidden stones in the
middle, and gurgles at projecting points of rock. A mile farther
down there is an islet where the stream quickens, chafes, and
breaks into a rapid. Behind the islet it drops down in three or
four foaming steps. On the outside it makes one long, straight
rush into a line of white-crested standing waves.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: we not make it," she continued, "the debt is no less, though
Helium will never know, for you have saved the last of our
line from worse than death."
I did not answer, but instead reached to my side and
pressed the little fingers of her I loved where they clung to
me for support, and then, in unbroken silence, we sped over
the yellow, moonlit moss; each of us occupied with his own
thoughts. For my part I could not be other than joyful had I
tried, with Dejah Thoris' warm body pressed close to mine,
and with all our unpassed danger my heart was singing as
gaily as though we were already entering the gates of Helium.
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: put it to yourself if that's probable; and yet it's not against
the laws of nature. But we sit here to consider probabilities;
and with your genteel permission, I eliminate her Majesty and
Uncle Tim on the threshold. To proceed, we have your second idea,
that this has some connection with the statue. Possible; but in
that case who is the advertiser? Not Ricardi, for he knows your
address; not the person who got the box, for he doesn't know your
name. The vanman, I hear you suggest, in a lucid interval. He
might have got your name, and got it incorrectly, at the station;
and he might have failed to get your address. I grant the vanman.
But a question: Do you really wish to meet the vanman?'
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