| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: For a strange figure went racing across the grass.
It was that of a man in a blue dressing-gown, who held
a lantern high before him, and a revolver in his right hand.
Coincident with my recognition of Mr. Eltham he leaped,
plunging into the shrubbery in the wake of the dog.
But the night held yet another surprise; for Nayland Smith's voice came:
"Come back! Come back, Eltham!"
I ran out into the passage and downstairs. The front door was open.
A terrible conflict waged in the shrubbery, between the mastiff and
something else. Passing round to the lawn, I met Smith fully dressed.
He just had dropped from a first-floor window.
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: It embarked upon actual construction of weapons while its rivals
in other countries were content to prepare their drawings, which
were filed against "The Day." But it must not be thought that
because the German manufacturers of armaments were ahead of
their contemporaries they dominated the situation. Far from it.
Their competitors in the market of destruction were every whit as
keen, as ingenious, and as enterprising. Kruppism saw a
commercial opportunity to profit from advertisement and seized
it: its rivals were content to work in secret upon paper, to keep
pace with the trend of thought, and to perfect their
organisations so as to be ready for the crisis when it developed.
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: Trooper Peter Halket looked up at it.
It was the tall figure of a man, clad in one loose linen garment, reaching
lower than his knees, and which clung close about him. His head, arms, and
feet were bare. He carried no weapon of any kind; and on his shoulders
hung heavy locks of dark hair.
Peter Halket looked up at him with astonishment. "Are you alone?" he
asked.
"Yes, I am alone."
Peter Halket lowered his gun and knelt up.
"Lost your way, I suppose?" he said, still holding his weapon loosely.
"No; I have come to ask whether I may sit beside your fire for a while."
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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 Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: turn to the central golden altar, in the midst of which, though
you cannot see it now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned
with curls of faint blue smoke. It is of marble overlaid with
pure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height,
and thirty-six in circumference. Here also, hinged to the foundations
of the altar, are twelve petals of beaten gold. All night and,
except at one hour, all day also, these petals are closed over
the altar itself exactly as the petals of a water-lily close
over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the sun at
midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon
the golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery,
Allan Quatermain |
