| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: I saw that the girl was gotten below as quickly as possible, and
she took Nobs with her--poor Nobs had nearly barked his head off;
and I think, too, that for the first time since his littlest
puppyhood he had known fear; nor can I blame him. After the girl
I sent Bradley and most of the Allies and then the Germans who
were on deck--von Schoenvorts being still in irons below.
The creatures were approaching perilously close before I dropped
through the hatchway and slammed down the cover. Then I went
into the tower and ordered full speed ahead, hoping to distance
the fearsome things; but it was useless. Not only could any of
them easily outdistance the U-33, but the further upstream we
The Land that Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: Doctor and the stranger were talking together, not in Latin nor in any
Gallic tongue, but in an unknown language, and very gravely. They
pointed with their hands now to heaven and now to the earth. Sigier,
to whom the paths by the river were familiar, guided the venerable
stranger with particular care to the narrow planks which here and
there bridged the mud; the following watched them inquisitively; and
some of the students envied the privileged boy who might walk with
these two great masters of speech. Finally, the Doctor took leave of
the stranger, and the ferry-boat pushed off.
At the moment when the boat was afloat on the wide river,
communicating its motion to the soul, the sun pierced the clouds like
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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 The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: the distance I could see red houses- Ringley. I put up my right
hand and felt for the chain. As I did so, there seemed to be
less weigh on the train- a strange feeling. I hesitated, the
wind flying in my face. We were not going so fast- so evenly.
Yet, if we had run through Shy Junction, surely we were not going
to stop at- The next moment I saw what it was. We were the last
coach, and there was a gap, widening slowly, between us and the
rest of the train. We had been slipped. I took in my head to
find my companion clasping my arm and crying.
"No, no. You mustn't, you mustn't. You're awfully good, but- "
"It's all right," I said. "I didn't have to. We're in the
The Brother of Daphne |
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 Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: sounds. If the universe contains no ear to hear the sound, the sound
has no existence."
"Why?" said both the tennis boys at once.
The tutor smiled. "Is it not clear," said he, "that there can be no
sound if it is not heard!"
"No," they both returned, "not in the least clear."
"It's clear enough what he's driving at of course, "pursued the first
boy. "Until the waves of sound or light or what not hit us through our
senses, our brains don't experience the sensations of sound or light or
what not, and so, of course, we can't know about them--not until they
reach us."
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