The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Four of the twenty were dead, a dozen others were
wounded, and Lieutenant D'Arnot was missing. Night was
falling rapidly, and their predicament was rendered doubly
worse when they could not even find the elephant trail which
they had been following.
There was but one thing to do, make camp where they
were until daylight. Lieutenant Charpentier ordered a
clearing made and a circular abatis of underbrush constructed
about the camp.
This work was not completed until long after dark, the
men building a huge fire in the center of the clearing to give
 Tarzan of the Apes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: But, when a victim is caught, sometimes right at the edge of the
web, the Spider has to rush up quickly, to bind it and overcome its
attempts to free itself. She is walking then upon her network; and
I do not find that she suffers the least inconvenience. The lime-
threads are not even lifted by the movements of her legs.
In my boyhood, when a troop of us would go, on Thursdays, {31} to
try and catch a Goldfinch in the hemp-fields, we used, before
covering the twigs with glue, to grease our fingers with a few
drops of oil, lest we should get them caught in the sticky matter.
Does the Epeira know the secret of fatty substances? Let us try.
I rub my exploring straw with slightly oiled paper. When applied
 The Life of the Spider |