| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: thousand luxuries of his own rooms, and spent the evening at the
Marquise d'Espard's to cleanse himself, if possible, of the smirch
left by the fancy that had driven him so relentlessly during the day.
And yet, when he was in bed, the vision came back to him, but clearer
and brighter than the reality. The girl was walking in front of him;
now and again as she stepped across a gutter her skirts revealed a
round calf; her shapely hips swayed as she walked. Again Andrea longed
to speak to her--and he dared not, he, Marcosini, a Milanese nobleman!
Then he saw her turn into the dark passage where she had eluded him,
and blamed himself for not having followed her.
"For, after all," said he to himself, "if she really wished to avoid
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: been talking. It made me so tongue-tied that I could not find my voice when
the Chief spoke to me and shook my hand warmly. He was a tall man, with a
fine face and kind eyes and hair just touched with gray.
"Kenneth Ward," he went on, pleasantly, "I hope that letter of introduction
I dictated for you some time ago has been of some service."
"I haven't had a chance to use it yet," I blurted out, and I dived into my
pocket to bring forth the letter. It was wrinkled, soiled, and had been
soaked with water. I began to apologize for its disreputable appearance
when he interrupted me.
"I've heard about the ducking you got and all the rest of it," he said,
smiling. Then his manner changed to one of business and hurry.
The Young Forester |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: eyes of paint. I knew it to be like, and marvelled at the tenacity
of type in that declining race; but the likeness was swallowed up
in difference. I remembered how it had seemed to me a thing
unapproachable in the life, a creature rather of the painter's
craft than of the modesty of nature, and I marvelled at the
thought, and exulted in the image of Olalla. Beauty I had seen
before, and not been charmed, and I had been often drawn to women,
who were not beautiful except to me; but in Olalla all that I
desired and had not dared to imagine was united.
I did not see her the next day, and my heart ached and my eyes
longed for her, as men long for morning. But the day after, when I
|
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 Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: achieved the state of Galu. For ages before, the ancestors of
this first Galu may have developed from a Band-lu or Bo-lu egg
without ever once completing the whole circle--that is from a
Galu egg, back to a fully developed Galu.
Bradley's head was whirling before he even commenced to grasp the
complexities of Caspakian evolution; but as the truth slowly
filtered into his understanding--as gradually it became possible
for him to visualize the scheme, it appeared simpler. In fact,
it seemed even less difficult of comprehension than that with
which he was familiar.
For several minutes after An-Tak ceased speaking, his voice
Out of Time's Abyss |
