| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: In the next hour I got a couple more, and they went the way of the
first one, down the throats of the detachment. That satisfied the
survivors, and they went away and left us in peace.
"We hadn't any more adventures, though I kept awake all night and
was ready. From midnight on the child got very restless, and out
of her head, and moaned, and said, 'Water, water - thirsty'; and
now and then, 'Kiss me, Soldier'; and sometimes she was in her fort
and giving orders to her garrison; and once she was in Spain, and
thought her mother was with her. People say a horse can't cry; but
they don't know, because we cry inside.
"It was an hour after sunup that I heard the boys coming, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: The foundation for the development of a rattle would thus have
been laid; and it would have been habitually used, if the species,
like so many others, vibrated its tail whenever it was irritated.
That the rattle has since been specially developed to serve as an
efficient sound-producing instrument, there can hardly be a doubt;
for even the vertebrae included within the extremity of the tail have
been altered in shape and cohere. But there is no greater improbability
in various structures, such as the rattle of the rattle-snake,--
the lateral scales of the Echis,--the neck with the included ribs
of the Cobra,--and the whole body of the puff-adder,--having been
modified for the sake of warning and frightening away their enemies,
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: and pay me!'--'Take some yourself,' said the countess quickly,
gathering up a quantity of forks and spoons and putting them into her
hands. Downstairs we rattled!--heavens! like success itself. No,
before we got to the street Mahuchet began to cry--she's a kind woman!
She turned back and restored the silver; for she now understood that
countess' poverty--it was plated ware!"
"And she forked it over," said Leon, in whom the former Mistigris
occasionally reappeared.
"Ah! my dear monsieur," said Madame Nourrisson, enlightened by the
slang, "you are an artist, you write plays, you live in the rue du
Helder and are friends with Madame Anatolia; you have habits that I
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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 The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: surrounded him. He continued up the river for perhaps a mile;
and then, crossing over to the left bank, drew his craft up on
a low ledge that lay almost on a level with the water.
I dared not follow across the stream, for he most surely would
have seen me. Instead I stopped close to the opposite wall beneath
an overhanging mass of rock that cast a dense shadow beneath it.
Here I could watch Thurid without danger of discovery.
The black was standing upon the ledge beside his boat, looking
up the river, as though he were awaiting one whom he expected
The Warlord of Mars |
