| 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: appeared the man was perfectly sound himself.
It is with regret that I take notice of this tavern. The people were
civil, mannerly, and an obliging sort of folks enough, and had till this
time kept their house open and their trade going on, though not so
very publicly as formerly: but there was a dreadful set of fellows that
used their house, and who, in the middle of all this horror, met there
every night, behaved with all the revelling and roaring extravagances
as is usual for such people to do at other times, and, indeed, to such an
offensive degree that the very master and mistress of the house grew
first ashamed and then terrified at them.
They sat generally in a room next the street, and as they always kept
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 The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and that is to pass through it. I could not get around the
fact that many of these other boats could rise faster than
ours by the fact of their greater buoyancy, but I was none
the less determined to reach the outer world far in advance
of them or die a death of my own choosing in event of failure.
"Reverse?" screamed Xodar, behind me. "For the love of
your first ancestor, reverse. We are at the shaft."
"Hold tight!" I screamed in reply. "Grasp the boy and
hold tight--we are going straight up the shaft."
The words were scarce out of my mouth as we swept beneath
the pitch-black opening. I threw the bow hard up,
The Gods of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: come between you and the duty you owe to yourself. If you have
nobody else to dress for, dress for God!
'Put your wig straight
On your bald pate,
Keep your chin scraped,
And your figure draped.
Can you match me that? The whole duty of man in a quatrain! And
remark, I do not set up to be a professional bard; these are the
outpourings of a DILETTANTE.'
'But, my dear sir!' he exclaimed.
'But, my dear sir!' I echoed, 'I will allow no man to interrupt the
|
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 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: and eleven guineas, which I told him I had saved out of my
little income, and that by the account that creature had given
me of the way of living in that country, I expected it would
maintain me three or four years; that if it was taken from me,
I was left destitute, and he knew what the condition of a woman
among strangers must be, if she had no money in her pocket;
however, I told him, if he would take it, there it was.
He told me with a great concern, and I thought I saw tears
stand in his eyes, that he would not touch it; that he abhorred
the thoughts of stripping me and make me miserable; that, on
the contrary, he had fifty guineas left, which was all he had in
Moll Flanders |
