| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: that he had hunted with them, that he had joined with them in
their savage life, and their fierce, primeval ceremonies--the
strange ceremonies of which Akut had tried to tell him. It cheered
him immensely to dwell upon these happy meetings. Often he
rehearsed the long speech which he would make to the apes, in
which he would tell them of the life of their former king since
he had left them.
At other times he would play at meeting with white men. Then he
would enjoy their consternation at sight of a naked white boy
trapped in the war togs of a black warrior and roaming the jungle
with only a great ape as his companion.
The Son of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: Even Clifford Wentworth, who had extreme youth in his favor,
and kept a buggy with enormous wheels and a little sorrel mare
with the prettiest legs in the world--even this fortunate lad
was apt to have an averted, uncomfortable glance, and to edge away
from you at times, in the manner of a person with a bad conscience.
The only person in the circle with no sense of oppression of any
kind was, to Felix's perception, Robert Acton.
It might perhaps have been feared that after the completion
of those graceful domiciliary embellishments which have
been mentioned Madame M; auunster would have found herself
confronted with alarming possibilities of ennui. But as yet
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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 Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: and would declare for us now if you should put them to the test."
"Father," said Matilda, "you know the terms of our compact:
from the moment you restrained my liberty, you renounced your
claim to all but compulsory obedience. The friar argues well.
Right ends with might. Thick walls, dreary galleries,
and tapestried chambers, were indifferent to me while I could leave
them at pleasure, but have ever been hateful to me since they
held me by force. May I never again have roof but the blue sky,
nor canopy but the green leaves, nor barrier but the forest-bounds;
with the foresters to my train, Little John to my page,
Friar Tuck to my ghostly adviser, and Robin Hood to my liege lord.
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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 Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: lips parted.
All he read he did not fully understand; the thoughts were new to him; but
this was the fellow's startled joy in the book--the thoughts were his, they
belonged to him. He had never thought them before, but they were his.
He laughed silently and internally, with the still intensity of triumphant
joy.
So, then, all thinking creatures did not send up the one cry--"As thou,
dear Lord, has created things in the beginning, so are they now, so ought
they to be, so will they be, world without end; and it doesn't concern us
what they are. Amen." There were men to whom not only kopjes and stones
were calling out imperatively, "What are we, and how came we here?
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