| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: rock-lined, and tube-like.
After a few minutes the propellers ceased their whirring.
We came to a full stop, and then commenced to rise swiftly
toward the surface. Soon the light from without increased
and we came to a stop.
Xodar entered the cabin with his men.
"Come," he said, and we followed him through the hatchway
which had been opened by one of the seamen.
We found ourselves in a small subterranean vault, in the
centre of which was the pool in which lay our submarine,
floating as we had first seen her with only her black back showing.
The Gods of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Of pensiv'd and subdued desires the tender,
Nature hath charg'd me that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render,
That is, to you, my origin and ender:
For these, of force, must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.
'O then advance of yours that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
Take all these similes to your own command,
Hallow'd with sighs that burning lungs did raise;
What me your minister, for you obeys,
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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 The Underground City by Jules Verne: James Starr, hastening to the spot, read the threatening sentences
again and again.
"The hand which traced these lines," said he at length, "is the same
which wrote me the letter contradicting yours, Simon. The man calls
himself Silfax. I see by your troubled manner that you know him.
Who is this Silfax?"
CHAPTER XVII THE "MONK"
THIS name revealed everything to the old overman.
It was that of the last "monk" of the Dochart pit.
In former days, before the invention of the safety-lamp, Simon had
known this fierce man, whose business it was to go daily, at the risk
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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 Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: men. If then he place his own good, his own best interest, only
in that which is free from hindrance and in his power, he will be
free, tranquil, happy, unharmed, noble-hearted, and pious; giving
thanks to all things unto God, finding fault with nothing that
comes to pass, laying no charge against anything. Whereas if he
place his good in outward things, depending not on the will, he
must perforce be subject to hindrance and restraint, the slave of
those that have power over the things he desires and fears; he
must perforce be impious, as deeming himself injured at the hands
of God; he must be unjust, as ever prone to claim more than his
due; he must perforce be of a mean and abject spirit.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
