| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: beginning at the forest's edge.
Immense trees reared their mighty heads far above us, their broad
fronds completely shutting off the slightest glimpse of the sky.
It was easy to see why the Kaolians needed no navy; their cities,
hidden in the midst of this towering forest, must be entirely
invisible from above, nor could a landing be made by any but the
smallest fliers, and then only with the greatest risk of accident.
How Thurid and Matai Shang were to land I could not imagine,
though later I was to learn that to the level of the forest
The Warlord of Mars |
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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: he cried out, coming up to the group with stormy countenance.
"Allow me, Mistah Gordon, to congratulate you upon youah escape,"
Mr. Taylor ventured. "A close shave, suh, a powahful close
shave."
" Congratulate hell! I might have been dead and rotten and no
thanks to you, you--!" And thereat John Gordon delivered himself
of a vigorous flood of English, terse, intensive, denunciative,
and composed solely of expletives and adjectives.
"Simply creased me," he went on when he had eased himself
sufficiently. "Ever crease cattle, Taylor?"
"Yes, suh, many a time down in God's country."
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