| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: but a figure-head, the puppet of Von der Tann."
Zellerndorf paused. He saw the flush of shame and anger
that suffused the king's face, and then he shot the bolt that
he had come to fire, but which he had not dared to hope
would find its target so denuded of defense.
"Your majesty," he whispered, coming quite close to the
king, "all Lutha is inclined to believe that you fear Prince
von der Tann. Only a few of us know the truth to be the
contrary. For the sake of your prestige you must take some
step to counteract this belief and stamp it out for good and
all. I have planned a way--hear it.
The Mad King |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: cattle stamp in their stalls for the self-same causes as decree the
passages of the stars across the unalterable face of Heaven! Ahem!'
Puck lay along chewing a leaf. They felt him shake with
laughter, and Mr Culpeper sat up stiffly.
'I myself" said he, 'have saved men's lives, and not a few
neither, by observing at the proper time - there is a time, mark
you, for all things under the sun - by observing, I say, so small a
beast as a rat in conjunction with so great a matter as this dread
arch above us.' He swept his hand across the sky. 'Yet there are
those,' he went on sourly, 'who have years without knowledge.'
'Right,' said Puck. 'No fool like an old fool.'
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: him at all was to bring certain death on him, and disgrace on the
family; and remembering Frank's conduct on that memorable night at
Clovelly, he kept himself down.
"Take me," said Eustace, "if you will, sir. You, who complain of
us that we keep no faith with heretics, will perhaps recollect that
you asked me into this room as your guest, and that in your good
faith I trusted when I entered it."
The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a
prisoner before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something
very like misprision of treason in not handing him over to the
nearest justice. However, all he did was, to go to the door, open
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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 Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: granted--love was still in the Platonic stage, to the great despair of
Louise and Lucien.
There are, for that matter, love affairs which start with a good or a
bad beginning, as you prefer to take it. Two creatures launch into the
tactics of sentiment; they talk when they should be acting, and
skirmish in the open instead of settling down to a siege. And so they
grow tired of one another, expend their longings in empty space; and,
having time for reflection, come to their own conclusions about each
other. Many a passion that has taken the field in gorgeous array, with
colors flying and an ardor fit to turn the world upside down, has
turned home again without a victory, inglorious and crestfallen,
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