| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: unequal conflict--eleven to one were too great odds
even for those powerful thews. His great advantage lay
in his superior intelligence, but even this seemed
futile in the face of the enormous weight of numbers
that opposed him. Time and again he had almost shaken
himself free only to fall once more--dragged down by
hairy arms about his legs.
Hither and thither about the campong the battle raged
until the fighting mass rolled against the palisade,
and here, at last, with his back to the structure,
Number Thirteen regained his feet, and with the heavy
The Monster Men |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: belonging to Rene, Blanche, in return for the flowers of age which
Bruyn offered her, coddled him, smiled upon him, kept him merry, and
fondled him with pretty ways and tricks, which good wives bestow upon
the husbands they deceive; and all so well, that the seneschal did not
wish to die, squatted comfortably in his chair, and the more he lived
the more he became partial to life. But to be brief, one night he died
without knowing where he was going, for he said to Blanche, "Ho! ho!
My dear, I see thee no longer! Is it night?"
It was the death of the just, and he had well merited it as a reward
for his labours in the Holy Land.
Blanche held for his death a great and true mourning, weeping for him
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: by the lawyer's unrivalled library of poetry and criminal trials,
that we find him sitting down to his dinner after his holiday
with Pitman. A spare old lady, with very bright eyes and a mouth
humorously compressed, waited upon the lawyer's needs; in every
line of her countenance she betrayed the fact that she was an old
retainer; in every word that fell from her lips she flaunted the
glorious circumstance of a Scottish origin; and the fear with
which this powerful combination fills the boldest was obviously
no stranger to the bosom of our friend. The hot Scotch having
somewhat warmed up the embers of the Heidsieck, It was touching
to observe the master's eagerness to pull himself together under
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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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: and his clerk awaiting in the background, seemed prepared to
perform some service of the church to which he belonged.
At length, there entered the middle aisle of the building a
numerous party, which appeared to be a bridal one, as a lady and
gentleman walked first, hand in hand, followed by a large
concourse of persons of both sexes, gaily, nay richly, attired.
The bride, whose features they could distinctly see, seemed not
more than sixteen years old, and extremely beautiful. The
bridegroom, for some seconds, moved rather with his shoulder
towards them, and his face averted; but his elegance of form and
step struck the sisters at once with the same apprehension. As
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