| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: all the while in London.
Never made public before
It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest
of my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague was
returned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and
particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither,
they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant,
among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet;
others said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus. It
mattered not from whence it came; but all agreed it was come into
Holland again.
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: "He will have to. I shall make him, or if not"
--he swore a great oath--"I'll cut him off with a
shilling to-morrow, and leave everything to you.
I shall. To you. Let him starve."
The window rattled down.
Harry drew a deep breath, and took one step
toward Bessie. "So it's you--the girl," he said,
in a lowered voice. She had not moved, and she re-
mained half turned away from him, pressing her
head in the palms of her hands. "My word!" he
continued, with an invisible half-smile on his lips.
To-morrow |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: observer takes the range and communicates with the gunner B, who
fires his weapon. The shell bursts at 1 emitting a red flame and
smoke. The observer notes the altitude and relative position of
the explosion in regard to the aircraft, while gunner B himself
observes whether the shell has burst to the right or to the left
of the objective and corrects accordingly. The observer commands
C to fire, and another shell is launched which emits a yellow
flame and smoke. It bursts at 2 according to the observer, while
gunner C also notes whether it is to the right or to the left of
the target and corrects accordingly. Now gunner D receives the
command to fire and the shell which explodes at 3 throws off a
|
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 Anthem by Ayn Rand: fire and stopped. But the flame was
unmoving, yet blinding as liquid metal.
So we climbed toward it through the rocks.
And there, before us, on a broad summit,
with the mountains rising behind it,
stood a house such as we had never seen,
and the white fire came from the sun on
the glass of its windows.
The house had two stories and a strange
roof flat as a floor. There was more window
than wall upon its walls, and the windows
Anthem |
