| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the blacks to depart in the direction of their village
without the usual baiting which had rendered him
the terror of Mbonga's people and had afforded Tarzan
both a vehicle of revenge and a source of inexhaustible delight.
Puzzle as he would, however, he could not solve the mystery
of the concealed pit, for the ways of the blacks were still
strange ways to Tarzan. They had entered his jungle but a
short time before--the first of their kind to encroach upon
the age-old supremacy of the beasts which laired there.
To Numa, the lion, to Tantor, the elephant, to the great
apes and the lesser apes, to each and all of the myriad
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: Till day break, if it loves to see the day:-
And yet, these are but empty images,
Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire
So great that all the waters of the main
Can not avail to quench it. Will you not speak?
DUCHESS
I hardly know what I should say to you.
GUIDO
Will you not say you love me?
DUCHESS
Is that my lesson?
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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 Enemies of Books by William Blades: sternly demanded the saint, who read their characters at a glance.
Their faltering reply was sufficient, and the blessed
saint at once passed judgment as follows:--`Insomuch as,
seduced by a foolish vanity, and against your vows of poverty,
you have amassed this multitude of books and thereby and therefor
have neglected the duties and broken the rules of your Order,
you are now sentenced to read your books for ever and ever in
the fires of Hell.' Immediately, a roaring noise filled the air,
and a flaming chasm opened in which friars, and asses and books
were suddenly engulphed."
CHAPTER IV.
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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 Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: When a man's pulled himself out of the mud as you have it's not my
business to pull him down. But I don't want you to pull any bunk."
Dick winced.
"Out of the mud!" he said. "No. I'm telling you the truth, Bassett.
I have some fragmentary memories, places and people, but no names,
and all of them, I imagine from my childhood. I pick up at a cabin
in the mountains, with snow around, and David Livingstone feeding me
soup with a tin spoon." He tried to smile and failed. His face
twitched. "I could stand it for myself," he said, "but I've tied
another life to mine, like a cursed fool, and now you speak of a
woman, and of arrest. Arrest! For what?"
The Breaking Point |
