| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: the smallest interest? It was a fact that a few years before this,
whilst my uncle was working at his great classification of minerals,
he was forty-eight hours without eating, and all his household were
obliged to share in this scientific fast. As for me, what I remember
is, that I got severe cramps in my stomach, which hardly suited the
constitution of a hungry, growing lad.
Now it appeared to me as if breakfast was going to be wanting, just
as supper had been the night before. Yet I resolved to be a hero, and
not to be conquered by the pangs of hunger. Martha took it very
seriously, and, poor woman, was very much distressed. As for me, the
impossibility of leaving the house distressed me a good deal more,
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: certain extent, over the men of untarnished clothes, because these
latter dreaded, perhaps, to be either killed or laughed at.
Above all things he despised obvious Christians and ciphers
with the chrysanthemums of aristocracy in their button-holes. He
considered himself above both of these classes. He was afraid of
neither the devil nor the leader of society.
When he had a dollar in his pocket his satisfaction with existence
was the greatest thing in the world. So, eventually, he felt
obliged to work. His father died and his mother's years were
divided up into periods of thirty days.
He became a truck driver. He was given the charge of a painstaking
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: and delving, of rushing and gurgling. All day the noise and the
fog continued, and then at sunset the one ceased and the other
cleared away. The poor Tailor looked out the window, and when he
saw what he saw his teeth chattered in his head, for there was a
lake a mile long and a mile broad, lined within with white
marble, and filled with water as clear as crystal, and he knew
that the Demon would come the next morning for another task to
do.
That night he slept little or none, and when the seventh hour of
the morning came the castle began to rock and tremble, and there
stood the Demon, and his hair bristled and his eyes shone like
|
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 Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: but," he added, "if the ten fat goats and the other
things are paid to me quickly there is yet time to save him."
Rabba Kega had paused to listen. Mbonga looked toward him.
The chief was in a quandary. He did not know which
medicine was the better. "What does your magic tell you?"
he asked of Rabba Kega.
"I, too, see him," screamed Rabba Kega; "but he is not
where Bukawai says he is. He is dead at the bottom
of the river."
At this Momaya commenced to howl loudly.
Tarzan had followed the spoor of the old man,
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
