| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: accounts of the Holy Wars, has ascribed their practices and
propensities to the Monarch of England, whose ferocity was
considered as an object of exaggeration as legitimate as his
valour.
ABBOTSFORD, 1st July, 1832.
*
TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. TALE II.--THE TALISMAN.
*
CHAPTER I.
They, too, retired
To the wilderness, but 'twas with arms. PARADISE REGAINED.
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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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James: this series that, weary with watching, I had felt that I might again
without laxity lay myself down at my old hour. I slept immediately and,
as I afterward knew, till about one o'clock; but when I woke it was
to sit straight up, as completely roused as if a hand had shook me.
I had left a light burning, but it was now out, and I felt an instant
certainty that Flora had extinguished it. This brought me to my feet
and straight, in the darkness, to her bed, which I found she had left.
A glance at the window enlightened me further, and the striking of a match
completed the picture.
The child had again got up--this time blowing out the taper, and had again,
for some purpose of observation or response, squeezed in behind
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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 Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to
afford him. He entered, at some length, into what he conceived
to be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a
constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired
to find a remedy--a mere nervous affection, he immediately added,
which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in a
host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed
them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms,
and the general manner of the narration had their weight. He
suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most
insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of
The Fall of the House of Usher |
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 Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: That he would be fool enough to venture it, I did not doubt.
We had gone inland for a mile or more, and were passing
through a park-like wood, when we came suddenly upon the
first human beings we had seen since we sighted the English
coast.
There were a score of men in the party. Hairy, half-naked
men they were, resting in the shade of a great tree. At the
first sight of us they sprang to their feet with wild yells,
seizing long spears that had lain beside them as they
rested.
For a matter of fifty yards they ran from us as rapidly as
Lost Continent |
