| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: "I do not need, pilot," said Phileas Fogg, when they got into
the open sea, "to advise you to use all possible speed."
"Trust me, your honour. We are carrying all the sail the wind will let us.
The poles would add nothing, and are only used when we are going into port."
"Its your trade, not mine, pilot, and I confide in you."
Phileas Fogg, with body erect and legs wide apart, standing
like a sailor, gazed without staggering at the swelling waters.
The young woman, who was seated aft, was profoundly affected
as she looked out upon the ocean, darkening now with the twilight,
on which she had ventured in so frail a vessel. Above her head
rustled the white sails, which seemed like great white wings.
Around the World in 80 Days |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: toward the horizon, and lighted up the gold and marble, and
jeweled mosaics of my world-old chamber, and I believe it
today as I sit at my desk in the little study overlooking the
Hudson. Twenty years have intervened; for ten of them I
lived and fought for Dejah Thoris and her people, and for
ten I have lived upon her memory.
The morning of our departure for Thark dawned clear
and hot, as do all Martian mornings except for the six weeks
when the snow melts at the poles.
I sought out Dejah Thoris in the throng of departing chariots,
but she turned her shoulder to me, and I could see the red blood
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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 The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: had possessed his throat; contact with Histah, the snake,
imparted an unpleasant sensation to the skin of his whole body;
while the approach of an enemy made the hairs on his scalp
stand erect.
Imagine, if you can, a child filled with the wonders
of nature, bursting with queries and surrounded only
by beasts of the jungle to whom his questionings were
as strange as Sanskrit would have been. If he asked
Gunto what made it rain, the big old ape would but gaze
at him in dumb astonishment for an instant and then
return to his interesting and edifying search for fleas;
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
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 Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: At her request, we had booked passages for her brother and herself
to Egypt. The boat sailed in three days. But Karamaneh's beautiful
eyes were sad; often I detected tears on the black lashes.
Shall I endeavor to describe my own tumultuous, conflicting emotions?
It would be useless, since I know it to be impossible.
For in those dark eyes burned a fire I might not see; those silken
lashes veiled a message I dared not read.
Nayland Smith was not blind to the facts of the complicated situation.
I can truthfully assert that he was the only man of my acquaintance who,
having come in contact with Karamaneh, had kept his head.
We endeavored to divert her mind from the recent tragedies by a round
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
