| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: knowledge into the labyrinth of that warfare What
was happening there? Even the busy ward leaders did
not know. In spite of the opening and closing of
doors, the hasty messengers, the ringing of bells and
the perpetual clitter-clack of recording implements,
Graham felt isolated, strangely inactive, inoperative.
Their isolation seemed at times the strangest, the
most unexpected of all the things that had happened
since his awakening. It had something of the quality
of that inactivity that comes in dreams. A tumult, the
stupendous realisation of a world struggle between
When the Sleeper Wakes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: And of the gentle breezes take their fill;
And oft unmated, marvellous to tell,
But of the wind impregnate, far and wide
O'er craggy height and lowly vale they scud,
Not toward thy rising, Eurus, or the sun's,
But westward and north-west, or whence up-springs
Black Auster, that glooms heaven with rainy cold.
Hence from their groin slow drips a poisonous juice,
By shepherds truly named hippomanes,
Hippomanes, fell stepdames oft have culled,
And mixed with herbs and spells of baneful bode.
Georgics |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "It is So-al!" exclaimed To-mar. "Is she mad that she follows
me thus?"
In another moment the young woman stopped, panting, before us.
She paid not the slightest attention to Ajor or me; but
devouring To-mar with her sparkling eyes, she cried: "I have
risen! I have risen!"
"So-al!" was all that the man could say.
"Yes," she went on, "the call came to me just before I quit the
pool; but I did not know that it had come to you. I can see it
in your eyes, To-mar, my To-mar! We shall go on together!"
And she threw herself into his arms.
The People That Time Forgot |
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 Betty Zane by Zane Grey: of hostile Indians prowled around and made it dangerous for anyone to leave
the clearing. Frequently the first person to appear in the early morning would
be shot at by an Indian concealed in the woods.
General George Rodgers Clark, commandant of the Western Military Department,
arrived at the village in 1774. As an attack from the savages was apprehended
during the year the settlers determined to erect a fort as a defense for the
infant settlement. It was planned by General Clark and built by the people
themselves. At first they called it Fort Fincastle, in honor of Lord Dunmore,
who, at the time of its erection, was Governor of the Colony of Virginia. In
1776 its name was changed to Fort. Henry, in honor of Patrick Henry.
For many years it remained the most famous fort on the frontier, having
Betty Zane |
