| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: summoned swift messengers from among the Sound Elves, who are
accustomed to travel quickly, and they carried messages from him to
Wul-Takim, the King of the Reformed Thieves, and to King Terribus of
Spor, who had both promised him their assistance in case he needed it.
The prince did not tell his friends of this action, but after the
messengers had been dispatched he felt easier in his mind.
The little High Ki remained as sweet and brave and lovable as ever,
striving constantly to cheer and encourage her little band of
defenders. But none of them was very much worried, and Nerle confided
to the maiden in yellow the fact that he expected to suffer quite
agreeably when the Ki-Ki at last got him in their clutches.
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: said enough already. It may, however, be added, that the College of
Physicians were daily publishing several preparations, which they had
considered of in the process of their practice, and which, being to be
had in print, I avoid repeating them for that reason.
One thing I could not help observing: what befell one of the quacks,
who published that he had a most excellent preservative against the
plague, which whoever kept about them should never be infected or
liable to infection. This man, who, we may reasonably suppose, did
not go abroad without some of this excellent preservative in his
pocket, yet was taken by the distemper, and carried off in two or three
days.
A Journal of the Plague Year |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: he, till he knows what I think?"
"You think it's perfectly simple to let Owen marry a girl we
know nothing about?"
"No; but I don't think it's perfectly simple to prevent
him."
The shrewdness of the answer increased Darrow's interest in
Miss Painter. She had not hitherto struck him as being a
person of much penetration, but he now felt sure that her
gimlet gaze might bore to the heart of any practical
problem.
Madame de Chantelle sighed out her recognition of the
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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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: down upon the Austrian valleys. But in the Trentino the
Austrians are still well over the crest on the southward slopes.
When I was in Italy they still held Roverto.
Now it cannot be said that under modern conditions mountains
favour either the offensive or the defensive. But they certainly
make operations far more deliberate than upon a level. An
engineered road or railway in an Alpine valley is the most
vulnerable of things; its curves and viaducts may be practically
demolished by shell fire or swept by shrapnel, although you hold
the entire valley except for one vantage point. All the
mountains round about a valley must be won before that valley is
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