| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: leave me be--leave me be--"
His look was fixed again upon the unknown.
He moved with mysterious purpose, and all of
the youth's offers he brushed aside. "No--no--
leave me be--leave me be--"
The youth had to follow.
Presently the latter heard a voice talking
softly near his shoulders. Turning he saw that it
belonged to the tattered soldier. "Ye 'd better
take 'im outa th' road, pardner. There 's a batt'ry
comin' helitywhoop down th' road an' he 'll git
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "At first I could not understand, but at last came a
realization of what had occurred. Tario's long suggestions
had at last prevailed, and Kar Komak had become a reality
in the world of men; but my harness and my weapons
had faded away with my fellows, leaving me naked and
unarmed in a hostile country far from Lothar."
"You wish to return to Lothar?" asked Carthoris.
"No!" replied Kar Komak quickly. "I have no love for Tario.
Being a creature of his mind, I know him too well.
He is cruel and tyrannical--a master I have no desire to serve.
Now that he has succeeded in accomplishing my permanent
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: sound temporarily frightened the birds.
Edgar Caswall tortured his brain for a long time unavailingly, to
think of some means of getting rid of what he, as well as his
neighbours, had come to regard as a plague of birds. At last he
recalled a circumstance which promised a solution of the difficulty.
The experience was of some years ago in China, far up-country,
towards the head-waters of the Yang-tze-kiang, where the smaller
tributaries spread out in a sort of natural irrigation scheme to
supply the wilderness of paddy-fields. It was at the time of the
ripening rice, and the myriads of birds which came to feed on the
coming crop was a serious menace, not only to the district, but to
Lair of the White Worm |
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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: generation. They were of the world, and the ways of the world they must
follow. Political life had no inherent sanctity or nobleness; why act
holily and nobly in it? Family life had no inherent sanctity or
nobleness; why act holily and nobly in it either, if there were no holy,
noble, and divine principle or ground for it? And thus grew up, both in
Egypt, Syria, and Byzantium, a chaos of profligacy and chicanery, in
rulers and people, in the home and the market, in the theatre and the
senate, such as the world has rarely seen before or since; a chaos which
reached its culmination in the seventh century, the age of Justinian and
Theodora, perhaps the two most hideous sovereigns, worshipped by the
most hideous empire of parasites and hypocrites, cowards and wantons,
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