| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: while and build instead a few small sailing-boats that
could be manned by four or five men.
I was to proceed to Sari, and while prosecuting my
search for Dian attempt at the same time the rehabili-
tation of the federation. Perry was going as far as possible
by water, with the chances that the entire trip might be
made in that manner, which proved to be the fact.
With a couple of Mezops as companions I started for
Sari. In order to avoid crossing the principal range of
the Mountains of the Clouds we took a route that passed
a little way south of Phutra. We had eaten four times
Pellucidar |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: devil and the police should let me go on as I please, so as to nab me
in the nick of time? Did any one ever see the like! But there, this is
folly . . ."
Castanier went along the Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, slackening his
pace as he neared the Rue Richer. There on the second floor of a block
of buildings which looked out upon some gardens lived the unconscious
cause of Castanier's crime--a young woman known in the quarter as Mme.
de la Garde. A concise history of certain events in the cashier's past
life must be given in order to explain these facts, and to give a
complete presentment of the crisis when he yielded to temptation.
Mme. de la Garde said that she was a Piedmontese. No one, not even
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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 Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: She had often seen it creeping over women's faces for months,
who died at last of slow hunger or consumption. That meant
death, distant, lingering: but this--Whatever it was the woman
saw, or thought she saw, used as she was to crime and misery,
seemed to make her sick with a new horror. Forgetting her fear
of him, she caught his shoulders, and looked keenly, steadily,
into his eyes.
"Hugh!" she cried, in a desperate whisper,--"oh, boy, not that!
for God's sake, not that!"
The vacant laugh went off his face, and he answered her in a
muttered word or two that drove her away. Yet the words were
Life in the Iron-Mills |
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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: because they delighted to find me weak."
"Proceed," said the Prince; "I doubt not of the facts which you
relate, but imagine that you impute them to mistaken motives."
"In this company," said Imlac, "I arrived at Agra, the capital of
Hindostan, the city in which the Great Mogul commonly resides. I
applied myself to the language of the country, and in a few months
was able to converse with the learned men; some of whom I found
morose and reserved, and others easy and communicative; some were
unwilling to teach another what they had with difficulty learned
themselves; and some showed that the end of their studies was to
gain the dignity of instructing.
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