| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: pretending to survey the front of the Alhambra, when there
flashed into his mind a thought to appal the bravest. The
machine was set; at the appointed hour, it must explode; and
how, in the interval, was he to be rid of it?
Put yourself, I beseech you, into the body of that patriot.
There he was, friendless and helpless; a man in the very
flower of life, for he is not yet forty; with long years of
happiness before him; and now condemned, in one moment, to a
cruel and revolting death by dynamite! The square, he said,
went round him like a thaumatrope; he saw the Alhambra leap
into the air like a balloon; and reeled against the railing.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: "I asked her to pity me, and she teases me!" Rodney exclaimed.
"I don't intend to pity you, Mr. Rodney," Mary remarked, kindly, but
firmly. "When a paper's a failure, nobody says anything, whereas now,
just listen to them!"
The sound, which filled the room, with its hurry of short syllables,
its sudden pauses, and its sudden attacks, might be compared to some
animal hubbub, frantic and inarticulate.
"D'you think that's all about my paper?" Rodney inquired, after a
moment's attention, with a distinct brightening of expression.
"Of course it is," said Mary. "It was a very suggestive paper."
She turned to Denham for confirmation, and he corroborated her.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: uniform, dirty yellow, until a pile of them lay upon
the ground, a pile which Abdul Mourak fondled and
petted in an ecstasy of greed.
Something stirred in the ape-man's mind as he looked
long upon the golden ingots. Where had he seen such
before? What were they? Why did these Tarmangani covet
them so greatly? To whom did they belong?
He recalled the black men who had buried them.
The things must be theirs. Werper was stealing them as
he had stolen Tarzan's pouch of pebbles. The ape-man's
eyes blazed in anger. He would like to find the black
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
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 Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: sat the figure of a man, richly dressed, with a crown on his
head, all flaming with diamonds. He was of a noble aspect, and
rather handsome, but looked sullen and discontented; and he
kept rubbing his eyes and shading them with his hand, as if he
did not live enough in the sunshine to be very fond of its
light.
As soon as this personage saw the affrighted Proserpina, he
beckoned her to come a little nearer.
"Do not be afraid," said he, with as cheerful a smile as he
knew how to put on. "Come! Will you not like to ride a little
way with me, in my beautiful chariot?"
Tanglewood Tales |
