| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: Rolls eyes of fire and rages through the fields,
Furious from thirst and by the drought dismayed.
Me list not then beneath the open heaven
To snatch soft slumber, nor on forest-ridge
Lie stretched along the grass, when, slipped his slough,
To glittering youth transformed he winds his spires,
And eggs or younglings leaving in his lair,
Towers sunward, lightening with three-forked tongue.
Of sickness, too, the causes and the signs
I'll teach thee. Loathly scab assails the sheep,
When chilly showers have probed them to the quick,
Georgics |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: and King Apollo, but the goddesses staid at home all of them for
shame. Then the givers of all good things stood in the doorway,
and the blessed gods roared with inextinguishable laughter, as
they saw how cunning Vulcan had been, whereon one would turn
towards his neighbour saying:
"Ill deeds do not prosper, and the weak confound the strong. See
how limping Vulcan, lame as he is, has caught Mars who is the
fleetest god in heaven; and now Mars will be cast in heavy
damages."
Thus did they converse, but King Apollo said to Mercury,
"Messenger Mercury, giver of good things, you would not care how
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: interest in you. I wonder if he suspects the truth about you?
Tennington came in with Clayton. They are great friends,
you know. He is about to set out upon one of his interminable
cruises in that yacht of his, and was urging the entire party
to accompany him. Tried to inveigle me into it, too.
Is thinking of circumnavigating Africa this time. I told him
that his precious toy would take him and some of his friends
to the bottom of the ocean one of these days if he didn't get
it out of his head that she was a liner or a battleship.
I returned to Paris day before yesterday, and yesterday I
met the Count and Countess de Coude at the races. They
The Return of Tarzan |
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 Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: of it, and when he was settled by the window in his big chair with
a blanket over his knees, Dick came in with a great box. Unwrapping
it he disclosed a mass of paper and a small box, and within that
still another.
"What fol-de-rol is all this?" David demanded fiercely, with a
childish look of expectation in his eyes. "Give me that box.
Some more slippers, probably!"
He worked eagerly, and at last he came to the small core of the
mass. It was a cigar!
It was somewhat later, when the peace of good tobacco had relaxed
him into a sort of benignant drowsiness, and when Dick had started
The Breaking Point |
