| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: possible influence of General Jackson upon the affairs of his
country, which appears highly extravagant to those who have seen
more of the subject. We have been told that General Jackson has
won sundry battles, that he is an energetic man, prone by nature
and by habit to the use of force, covetous of power, and a despot
by taste. All this may perhaps be true; but the inferences which
have been drawn from these truths are exceedingly erroneous. It
has been imagined that General Jackson is bent on establishing a
dictatorship in America, on introducing a military spirit, and on
giving a degree of influence to the central authority which
cannot but be dangerous to provincial liberties. But in America
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: tion to her or her companion. Yet something held him there in
futile self-sacrifice.
The great Tarmangani had not even the satisfaction of
striking a blow in self-defense. A veritable avalanche of savage
beasts rolled over him and threw him heavily to the ground.
In falling his head struck the rocky surface of the cliff, stun-
ning him.
It was daylight when he regained consciousness. The first
dim impression borne to his awakening mind was a confusion
of savage sounds which gradually resolved themselves into
the growling of lions, and then, little by little, there came
Tarzan the Untamed |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: many tears I would have dried--as many as I have shed--I believe!
Yes, I would have lived only for you and for charity.
"These are the thoughts that make death beautiful. So do not
lament, my dear. Say often to yourself, 'There were two good
creatures, two beautiful creatures, who both died for me
ungrudgingly, and who adored me.' Keep a memory in your heart of
Coralie and Esther, and go your way and prosper. Do you recollect
the day when you pointed out to me a shriveled old woman, in a
melon-green bonnet and a puce wrapper, all over black grease-
spots, the mistress of a poet before the Revolution, hardly thawed
by the sun though she was sitting against the wall of 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 Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: wasn't a bit that way. Not common rocks they were, undermined
by waves; but great curved banks like ironwork cinder heaps,
with green slime below, and thorny shrubs and things just waving
upon them here and there, and the water glassy calm and clear,
and showing you a kind of dirty grey-black shine, with huge flaring
red-brown weeds spreading motionless, and crawling and darting
things going through it. And far away beyond the ditches and pools
and the heaps was a forest on the mountain flank, growing again after
the fires and cinder showers of the last eruption. And the other way
forest, too, and a kind of broken--what is it?--ambytheatre of black
and rusty cinders rising out of it all, and the sea in a kind of bay
|
