| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: color, smell, and shape-- have the same origin, for the day is not
far off when the relationship of the phenomena of air and light
will be made clear.
Thought, which is allied to Light, is expressed in words which
depend on sound. To man, then, everything is derived from the
Substance, whose transformations vary only through Number--a
certain quantitative dissimilarity, the proportions resulting in
the individuals or objects of what are classed as Kingdoms.
VIII
When the Substance is absorbed in sufficient number (or quantity)
it makes of man an immensely powerful mechanism, in direct
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: "This is a very strange affair," said Lopaka; "and I fear you will
be in trouble about this bottle. But there is one point very clear
- that you are sure of the trouble, and you had better have the
profit in the bargain. Make up your mind what you want with it;
give the order, and if it is done as you desire, I will buy the
bottle myself; for I have an idea of my own to get a schooner, and
go trading through the islands."
"That is not my idea," said Keawe; "but to have a beautiful house
and garden on the Kona Coast, where I was born, the sun shining in
at the door, flowers in the garden, glass in the windows, pictures
on the walls, and toys and fine carpets on the tables, for all the
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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 Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: better,--poor fellow, he didn't want to go,--but one night, about
dark, I took the Big Gray an' put him to the cart, an' bedded it
down wid straw; an' I wrapped me Tom up in two blankits an'
carried him downstairs in me own arms, an' driv slow to the
ferry."
She hesitated for a moment, leaned her bruised head on her hand,
and then went on:--
"When I got to Bellevue, over by the river, it was near ten
o'clock at night. Nobody stopped me or iver looked into me bundle
of straw where me poor boy lay; an' I rung the bell, an' they came
out, an' got him up into the ward, an' laid him on the bed. Dr.
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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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: She was helpless, at his mercy, unarmed, saved for her wits. Her wits!
Were wits any longer of avail? She could believe nothing else now
except that he had been watching her - before he struck.
"What are you doing here, and what are those clothes you've got in
your hands?" he rasped out.
She could only fence for time in the meager hope that some loophole
would present itself. She forced an assumed defiance into her tones
and manner, that was in keeping with the sort of armed truce, which,
from her first meeting with Danglar, she had inaugurated as a barrier
between them.
"You have asked me two questions," she said tartly. "Which one do
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