| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: as he came towards the bed; the lamp flared in a sudden vehement
gust of wind and lighted up his father's face; the features were
wasted and distorted; the skin that cleaved to their bony
outlines had taken wan livid hues, all the more ghastly by force
of contrast with the white pillows on which he lay. The muscles
about the toothless mouth had contracted with pain and drawn
apart the lips; the moans that issued between them with appalling
energy found an accompaniment in the howling of the storm
without.
In spite of every sign of coming dissolution, the most striking
thing about the dying face was its incredible power. It was no
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: grown more quiet, save where angry little gusts ruffled it. But
these gusts made it necessary to carry a double reef, and they
made but little progress against wind and tide.
A dark-gray fog, broken by frequent wind-flaws, makes the
ugliest of all days on the water. A still, pale fog is
soothing; it lulls nature to a kind of repose. But a windy fog
with occasional sunbeams and sudden films of metallic blue
breaking the leaden water,--this carries an impression of
something weird and treacherous in the universe, and suggests
caution.
As the boat floated on, every sight and sound appeared strange.
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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 Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: there are not too many men he might be able to dispose of
them provided they can only come at him one at a time. The
lions don't bother me so much. Sometimes they are stupid
animals, and I am sure that these that pursue us, and who are
so dependent upon the masters that have raised and trained
them, will be easily handled after the warriors are disposed of."
"You think there is some hope, then?" she asked.
"We are still alive," was his only answer.
"There," he said presently, "I thought I recalled this very
spot." He pointed toward a fragment that had evidently fallen
from the summit of the cliff and which now lay imbedded in
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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: man! thou should'st sit up, with the wound upon thy groin, whole nights
baking thy blood with hectic watchings?--Alas! 'twill exasperate thy
symptoms,--check thy perspirations--evaporate thy spirits--waste thy animal
strength, dry up thy radical moisture, bring thee into a costive habit of
body,--impair thy health,--and hasten all the infirmities of thy old age.--
O my uncle! my uncle Toby.
Chapter 1.XXIX.
I would not give a groat for that man's knowledge in pen-craft, who does
not understand this,--That the best plain narrative in the world, tacked
very close to the last spirited apostrophe to my uncle Toby--would have
felt both cold and vapid upon the reader's palate;--therefore I forthwith
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