| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: Sunset her purple canopies and red,
In serried splendour, and the night unfold
Her velvet darkness wrought with starry gold
For kingly raiment, soft as cygnet-down.
My hair shall braid thy temples like a crown
Of sapphires, and my kiss upon thy brows
Like cithar-music lull thee to repose,
Till the sun yield thee homage of his light.
O king, thy kingdom who from thee can wrest?
What fate shall dare uncrown thee from this breast,
O god-born lover, whom my love doth gird
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: the mediocrity of his means. The walls of the garret were covered with
bits of paper on which were crayon sketches; he possessed only four
clean canvases. Colors were at that time costly, and the poor
gentleman gazed at a palette that was well-nigh bare. In the midst of
this poverty he felt within himself an indescribable wealth of heart
and the superabundant force of consuming genius. Brought to Paris by a
gentleman of his acquaintance, and perhaps by the monition of his own
talent, he had suddenly found a mistress,--one of those generous and
noble souls who are ready to suffer by the side of a great man;
espousing his poverty, studying to comprehend his caprices, strong to
bear deprivation and bestow love, as others are daring in the display
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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 The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: thinking of a god-like figure, a leopard skin half concealing his
smooth, brown hide as he leaped nimbly through the trees to
lay an offering of food before her on his return from a
successful hunt. Behind him, shaggy and powerful, swung a
huge anthropoid ape, while she, Meriem, laughing and shouting
her welcome, swung upon a swaying limb before the entrance to her
sylvan bower. It was a pretty picture as she recalled it. The other
side seldom obtruded itself upon her memory--the long, black
nights--the chill, terrible jungle nights--the cold and damp and
discomfort of the rainy season--the hideous mouthings of the
savage carnivora as they prowled through the Stygian darkness
The Son of Tarzan |
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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: and without saying a word, went out again and was absent for some minutes.
When he returned, he said, "If you want to weigh this comet of yours,
I suppose you want a pair of scales; but I have been to look, and I
cannot find a pair anywhere. And what's more," he added mischievously,
"you won't get them anywhere."
A frown came over the professor's countenance. Servadac saw it,
and gave his orderly a sign that he should desist entirely
from his bantering.
"I require, gentlemen," resumed Rosette, "first of all to know by how much
the weight of a kilogramme here differs from its weight upon the earth;
the attraction, as we have said, being less, the weight will proportionately
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