| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: I dressed hurriedly and went out.
"Do you know what has happened?" said three
officers who had come for me, speaking all in one
voice.
They were deadly pale.
"No, what is it?"
"Vulich has been murdered!"
I was petrified.
"Yes, murdered!" they continued. "Let us
lose no time and go!"
"But where to?"
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: where I had left it, nor was there any sign that another had passed
through the room since I had been there; but I knew that two had
done so--Thurid, the black dator, and Dejah Thoris.
For a moment I paused uncertain as to which of the several
exits from the apartment would lead me upon the right path.
I tried to recollect the directions which I had heard Thurid
repeat to Solan, and at last, slowly, as though through a heavy fog,
the memory of the words of the First Born came to me:
"Follow a corridor, passing three diverging corridors upon the right;
The Warlord of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: kiss, and a tear--one of her tears--fell on his cheek and ran
down his immovable face.
"Goodbye," she whispered, and remained irresolute till he pushed
her suddenly into Dain's arms.
"If you have any pity for me," murmured Almayer, as if repeating
some sentence learned by heart, "take that woman away."
He stood very straight, his shoulders thrown back, his head held
high, and looked at them as they went down the beach to the
canoe, walking enlaced in each other's arms. He looked at the
line of their footsteps marked in the sand. He followed their
figures moving in the crude blaze of the vertical sun, in that
Almayer's Folly |
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 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: I remember it well. 'Tis since the Earth-quake now
eleuen yeares, and she was wean'd I neuer shall forget it,
of all the daies of the yeare, vpon that day: for I had then
laid Worme-wood to my Dug sitting in the Sunne vnder
the Douehouse wall, my Lord and you were then at
Mantua, nay I doe beare a braine. But as I said, when it
did tast the Worme-wood on the nipple of my Dugge,
and felt it bitter, pretty foole, to see it teachie, and fall out
with the Dugge, Shake quoth the Doue-house, 'twas no
neede I trow to bid mee trudge, and since that time it is
a eleuen yeares, for then she could stand alone, nay bi'th'
Romeo and Juliet |
