| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: experience; she was noble by beauty and physical distinction.
Suspicious as a spy, or a judge, or an old statesman, she was
difficult to impose upon, and therefore the more able to see clearly
into most matters. She knew the ways of managing tradespeople, and how
to evade their snares, and she was quite as well versed in the prices
of things as a public appraiser. To see her lying on her sofa, like a
young bride, fresh and white, holding her part in her hand and
learning it, you would have thought her a child of sixteen, ingenuous,
ignorant, and weak, with no other artifice about her but her
innocence. Let a creditor contrive to enter, and she was up like a
startled fawn, and swearing a good round oath.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: JOB 30:28 I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in
the congregation.
JOB 30:29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
JOB 30:30 My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
JOB 30:31 My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the
voice of them that weep.
JOB 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon
a maid?
JOB 31:2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what
inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
JOB 31:3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: shifts so that the latter and Olson now divided the nights,
while Bradley and I alternated with one another during the days.
I questioned both Olson and Benson closely in the matter of the
compass; but each stoutly maintained that no one had tampered
with it during his tour of duty. Benson gave me a knowing smile,
as much as to say: "Well, you and I know who did this." Yet I
could not believe that it was the girl.
We kept to our westerly course for several hours when the
lookout's cry announced a sail. I ordered the U-33's course
altered, and we bore down upon the stranger, for I had come to
a decision which was the result of necessity. We could not lie
The Land that Time Forgot |
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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: tent made all clear at the stem of the little tree; but there was no sound
of movement within.
For a moment Peter Halket stood motionless; then he walked up to the tree.
The black man hung against the white stem, so closely bound to it that they
seemed one. His hands were tied to his sides, and his head drooped on his
breast. His eyes were closed; and his limbs, which had once been those of
a powerful man, had fallen away, making the joints stand out. The wool on
his head was wild and thick with neglect, and stood out roughly in long
strands; and his skin was rough with want and exposure.
The riems had cut a little into his ankles; and a small flow of blood had
made the ground below his feet dark.
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