| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: 'Courageous Roman, do not steep thy heart
In such relenting dew of lamentations,
But kneel with me, and help to bear thy part,
To rouse our Roman gods with invocations,
That they will suffer these abominations,
(Since Rome herself in them doth stand disgrac'd,)
By our strong arms from forth her fair streets chas'd.
'Now, by the Capitol that we adore,
And by this chaste blood so unjustly stain'd,
By heaven's fair sun that breeds the fat earth's store,
By all our country rights in Rome maintain'd,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: crossroads and Horsell, and ran along this to the crossroads.
At last I could go no further; I was exhausted with the
violence of my emotion and of my flight, and I staggered and
fell by the wayside. That was near the bridge that crosses
the canal by the gasworks. I fell and lay still.
I must have remained there some time.
I sat up, strangely perplexed. For a moment, perhaps, I
could not clearly understand how I came there. My terror
had fallen from me like a garment. My hat had gone, and
my collar had burst away from its fastener. A few minutes
before, there had only been three real things before me--the
War of the Worlds |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: lunched with him for his company's sake.
"I wouldn't have made an engagement with you of course," she
continued, with a frankness that vanquished any remaining conceit
that Jimmy might have brought with him. "I explained to you how
it was at the time. It was merely a case of convenience. You
know that."
Jimmy was beginning to see it more and more in the light of an
inconvenience.
"If you hadn't been in front of that horrid old restaurant just
when I was passing," she continued, "all this would never have
happened. But you were there, and you asked me to come in and
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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 Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: indignation.
"Do you forget, sir, that you address the king?" she cried.
"That you are without honor I have heard men say, and I
may truly believe it now that I have seen what manner of
man you are. The most lowly-bred boor in all Lutha would
not be so ungenerous as to take advantage of his king's help-
lessness to heap indignities upon him.
"Leopold of Lutha shall come into his own some day,
and my dearest hope is that his first act may be to mete
out to such as you the punishment you deserve."
Maenck paled in anger. His fingers twitched nervously,
The Mad King |
