| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: It was true that Tarzan and Tantor were the best of friends,
and that Tarzan never yet had tasted of the flesh of
the elephant; but the Gomangani evidently had slain one,
and as they were eating of the flesh of their kill,
Tarzan was assailed by no doubts as to the ethics
of his doing likewise, should he have the opportunity.
Had he known that the elephant had died of sickness
several days before the blacks discovered the carcass,
he might not have been so keen to partake of the feast,
for Tarzan of the Apes was no carrion-eater. Hunger,
however, may blunt the most epicurean taste, and Tarzan
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: the keenness of their sensations, all the vividness of their
impressions. The simple things of the world, the great, broad,
primal emotions of the race stirred in them. As they swung along,
going toward the ocean, their brains were almost as empty of
thought or of reflection as those of two fine, clean animals.
They were all for the immediate sensation; they did not think--
they FELT. The intellect was dormant; they looked at things, they
heard things, they smelled the smell of the sea, and of the
seaweed, of the fat, rank growth of cresses in the salt marshes;
they turned their cheeks to the passing wind, and filled their
mouths and breasts with it. Their life was sweet to them; every
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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 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: Which would she prefer? He was equally at her service.
Which did his daughter think would most accord with her
fair friend's wishes? But he thought he could discern.
Yes, he certainly read in Miss Morland's eyes a judicious
desire of making use of the present smiling weather.
But when did she judge amiss? The abbey would be always
safe and dry. He yielded implicitly, and would fetch
his hat and attend them in a moment." He left the room,
and Catherine, with a disappointed, anxious face,
began to speak of her unwillingness that he should be
taking them out of doors against his own inclination,
Northanger Abbey |
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 Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: food. It was a long duel, obstinate, with no sort of consolation.
I found no sympathy anywhere. To have friends, must we not form
connections with young men, have a few sous so as to be able to
go tippling with them, and meet them where students congregate?
And I had nothing! And no one in Paris can understand that
nothing means NOTHING. When I even thought of revealing my
beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which makes
a sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into
the larynx.
"In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having
wanted for anything, had never even heard this problem in the
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