| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: miserable death of cold and hunger? I was four hours under these
circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be
my last.
I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples
fixed upon that side of my box which had no window, and into
which the servant, who used to carry me on horseback, would put a
leathern belt, and buckle it about his waist. Being in this
disconsolate state, I heard, or at least thought I heard, some
kind of grating noise on that side of my box where the staples
were fixed; and soon after I began to fancy that the box was
pulled or towed along the sea; for I now and then felt a sort of
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: play with them again, and, having nothing better to do
than satisfy the first whim which possessed him, he
rose and started across the plain from the forest in
which he had spent the preceding day.
Though no mark showed where the gems had been buried,
and though the spot resembled the balance of an
unbroken stretch several miles in length, where the
reeds terminated at the edge of the meadowland, yet the
ape-man moved with unerring precision directly to the
place where he had hid his treasure.
With his hunting knife he upturned the loose earth,
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: I beg the Law, the Law, vpon his head:
They would have stolne away, they would Demetrius,
Thereby to haue defeated you and me:
You of your wife, and me of my consent;
Of my consent, that she should be your wife
Dem. My Lord, faire Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither, to this wood,
And I in furie hither followed them;
Faire Helena, in fancy followed me.
But my good Lord, I wot not by what not by what power,
(But by some power it is) my loue
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
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 Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: formed a mutual esteem that was to endure through life.
"I have come to you," explained General Jacot, "because our
dear Admiral tells me that there is no one in all the world
who is more intimately acquainted with Central Africa than you.
"Let me tell you my story from the beginning. Many years
ago my little daughter was stolen, presumably by Arabs, while
I was serving with the Foreign Legion in Algeria. We did all
that love and money and even government resources could do to
discover her; but all to no avail. Her picture was published in
the leading papers of every large city in the world, yet never
did we find a man or woman who ever had seen her since the day
The Son of Tarzan |
