| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: eyes of her victim--only a slow ripple widened toward
the shores to mark where the two vanished.
For a time all was silence within the temple. The slaves
were motionless in terror. The Mahars watched the surface
of the water for the reappearance of their queen,
and presently at one end of the tank her head rose
slowly into view. She was backing toward the surface,
her eyes fixed before her as they had been when she
dragged the helpless girl to her doom.
And then to my utter amazement I saw the forehead
and eyes of the maiden come slowly out of the depths,
At the Earth's Core |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: which really means a nail driven into her coffin--a probable
shortening, though it may be a very small one, of her mortal life;
because the food of the next twenty-four hours, which should have
gone to keep the vital heat at its normal standard, will have to
be wasted in raising it up to that standard, from which it has
fallen by a chill.
Ladies, these are subjects on which I must beg to speak a little
more at length, premising them by one statement, which may seem
jest, but is solemn earnest--that, if the medical men of this or
any other city were what the world now calls "alive to their own
interests"--that is, to the mere making of money; instead of
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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 Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: o'clock the young man met the princes going to the bath and gave her
the kiss, and she agreed to run away with him, but begged with many
tears that he would let her take leave of her father. At first he
refused, but she wept still more and more, and fell at his feet, till
at last he consented; but the moment she came to her father's house
the guards awoke and he was taken prisoner again.
Then he was brought before the king, and the king said, 'You shall
never have my daughter unless in eight days you dig away the hill that
stops the view from my window.' Now this hill was so big that the
whole world could not take it away: and when he had worked for seven
days, and had done very little, the fox came and said. 'Lie down and
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: Here he winked one eye slyly and stuck his tongue into his cheek.
"Who art thou, mad priest?" said the King in a serious voice,
albeit he smiled beneath his cowl.
At this Friar Tuck looked all around with a slow gaze. "Look you now,"
quoth he, "never let me hear you say again that I am no patient man.
Here is a knave of a friar calleth me a mad priest, and yet I smite him not.
My name is Friar Tuck, fellow--the holy Friar Tuck."
"There, Tuck," said Robin, "thou hast said enow. Prythee, cease thy
talk and bring some wine. These reverend men are athirst, and sin'
they have paid so richly for their score they must e'en have the best."
Friar Tuck bridled at being so checked in his speech,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
