| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: The untended dead, the Tropic sun -
The thunder of the murderous gun -
The cut-throat crew - the Captain's curse -
The tempest blustering worse and worse -
These have I known and these can stand,
But you - I settle out of hand!'
Out flashed the cutlass, down went Ben
Dead and rotten, there and then.
Poem: II - THE BUILDER'S DOOM
In eighteen-twenty Deacon Thin
Feu'd the land and fenced it in,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: such good principles." In fact, the children had surrounded
D'Artagnan, whose horse, long sword, spurs, and martial air
they very much admired. But above all, they admired his
strong voice; so that, when he uttered his oath, the whole
school cried out, "The devil take me!" with fearful bursts
of laughter, shouts, and bounds, which delighted the
musketeer, and bewildered the old pedagogue.
"There!" said he, "hold your tongues, you brats! You have
come, M. d'Artagnan, and all my good principles fly away.
With you, as usual, comes disorder. Babel is revived. Ah!
Good Lord! Ah! the wild little wretches!" And the worthy
Ten Years Later |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: servants met them. These servants, they found, were all dumb, so that
should they escape from the palace walls they could tell no tales of
the High Ki.
The prisoners now proceeded through several pairs of halls, winding
this way and that, and at last came to a pair of golden double doors
leading into the throne-room of the mighty High Ki. Here they all
paused, and the Ki-Ki both turned to the prince and Nerle and said:
"You are the only persons, excepting ourselves and the palace
servants, who have ever been permitted to see the High Ki of Twi. As
you are about to die, that does not matter; but should you by any
chance be permitted to live, you must never breathe a word of what you
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
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 1984 by George Orwell: then slowed down, turned, and made off in the opposite direction. When he
had gone fifty metres he looked back. The street was not crowded, but
already he could not distinguish her. Any one of a dozen hurrying figures
might have been hers. Perhaps her thickened, stiffened body was no longer
recognizable from behind.
'At the time when it happens,' she had said, 'you do mean it.' He had
meant it. He had not merely said it, he had wished it. He had wished that
she and not he should be delivered over to the----
Something changed in the music that trickled from the telescreen. A
cracked and jeering note, a yellow note, came into it. And then--perhaps
it was not happening, perhaps it was only a memory taking on the semblance
1984 |
