| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: December, eight hours after their departure.
This noise was a very natural barking.
"The dogs! it is the dogs!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, rising at once.
"They are hungry," said Nicholl.
"By Jove!" replied Michel, "we have forgotten them."
"Where are they?" asked Barbicane.
They looked and found one of the animals crouched under the divan.
Terrified and shaken by the initiatory shock, it had remained
in the corner till its voice returned with the pangs of hunger.
It was the amiable Diana, still very confused, who crept out of
her retreat, though not without much persuasion, Michel Ardan
From the Earth to the Moon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: hardship that was of little use to anyone. Thus, for every person
who called him The Wise One with reverence, twenty pronounced his
name with irony.
Of the stories still not erased by the hand of time, consider these
and judge the man as you will:
* * *
One day a man, clearly troubled by the cares of life, came to The
Wise One and spoke thusly:
"My son, to whom I had entrusted my farm, last week stole my best
cows, sold them in the market, and spent the money in wild and
shameful living. Now he says he is sorry and will repay me. What
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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 St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'I don't think you will,' replied Chevenix. 'When I agreed to come
out here and do sentry-go, it was on one condition, Master Ronald:
don't you forget that! Military discipline, my boy! Our beat is
this path close about the house. Down, Towzer! good boy, good boy
- gently, then!' he went on, caressing his confounded monster.
'To think! The beggar may be hearing us this minute!' cried
Ronald.
'Nothing more probable,' said the Major. 'You there, St. Ives?' he
added, in a distinct but guarded voice. 'I only want to tell you,
you had better go home. Mr. Gilchrist and I take watch and watch.'
The game was up. 'BEAUCOUP DE PLAISIR!' I replied, in the same
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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 The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the
dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before heard."
Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild
amazement--for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this
instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction it
proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently
distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or
grating sound--the exact counterpart of what my fancy had already
conjured up for the dragon's unnatural shriek as described by the
romancer.
Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of the
The Fall of the House of Usher |
