| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: vanished into blackness. The breeze rose to a moaning wind. I
saw the black central shadow of the eclipse sweeping towards me.
In another moment the pale stars alone were visible. All else
was rayless obscurity. The sky was absolutely black.
`A horror of this great darkness came on me. The cold, that
smote to my marrow, and the pain I felt in breathing, overcame
me. I shivered, and a deadly nausea seized me. Then like a
red-hot bow in the sky appeared the edge of the sun. I got off
the machine to recover myself. I felt giddy and incapable of
facing the return journey. As I stood sick and confused I saw
again the moving thing upon the shoal--there was no mistake now
The Time Machine |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: of Athamas the Minuan king. And when a famine came upon the
land, their cruel step-mother Ino wished to kill them, that
her own children might reign, and said that they must be
sacrificed on an altar, to turn away the anger of the Gods.
So the poor children were brought to the altar, and the
priest stood ready with his knife, when out of the clouds
came the Golden Ram, and took them on his back, and vanished.
Then madness came upon that foolish king, Athamas, and ruin
upon Ino and her children. For Athamas killed one of them in
his fury, and Ino fled from him with the other in her arms,
and leaped from a cliff into the sea, and was changed into a
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise and dance and
sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there watching the wine
in the cup, but they did not move.
And here and there I saw a woman sit apart. The others danced and sang and
fed their children, but she sat silent with her head aside as though she
listened. Her little children plucked her gown; she did not see them; she
was listening to some sound, but she did not stir.
The revels grew higher. Men drank till they could drink no longer, and lay
their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more
leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers'
shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the edges of
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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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: children?' 'Yes.' 'Twelve years old?' 'Just about.' 'Well, then,
the "Children's Journal" is the very thing for you; six francs a
year, one number a month, double columns, edited by great literary
lights, well got up, good paper, engravings from charming sketches
by our best artists, actual colored drawings of the Indies--will
not fade.' I fired my broadside 'feelings of a father, etc.,
etc.,'--in short, a subscription instead of a quarrel. 'There's
nobody but Gaudissart who can get out of things like that,' said
that little cricket Lamard to the big Bulot at the cafe, when he
told him the story.
"I leave to-morrow for Amboise. I shall do up Amboise in two days,
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