| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: scant acquaintance with the ways of the anthropoids, she real-
ized that he was not menacing her, for there was little or no
baring of fighting fangs and his whole expression and attitude
was of one attempting to explain a knotty problem or plead
a worthy cause. At last he became evidently impatient, for
with a sweep of one great paw he struck the spear from her
hand and coming close, seized her by the arm, but not roughly.
She shrank away in terror and yet some sense within her
seemed to be trying to assure her that she was in no danger
from this great beast. Zu-tag jabbered loudly, ever and again
pointing into the jungle toward the south and moving toward
Tarzan the Untamed |
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 Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: insidious and inward decay. Therefore I have read with profound
regret, in that article upon the yachting season of a certain year,
that the seamanship on board racing yachts is not now what it used
to be only a few, very few, years ago.
For that was the gist of that article, written evidently by a man
who not only knows but UNDERSTANDS - a thing (let me remark in
passing) much rarer than one would expect, because the sort of
understanding I mean is inspired by love; and love, though in a
sense it may be admitted to be stronger than death, is by no means
so universal and so sure. In fact, love is rare - the love of men,
of things, of ideas, the love of perfected skill. For love is the
The Mirror of the Sea |
