| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: hush! I've told you before, you must NOT talk. You
are very, very sick!"
Then nothing but liquor had been found; there
would have been a great powwow if it had been the
gold. So the treasure was gone forever -- gone forever!
But what could she be crying about? Curious that
she should cry.
These thoughts worked their dim way through Huck's
mind, and under the weariness they gave him he fell
asleep. The widow said to herself:
"There -- he's asleep, poor wreck. Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: perspiration with which the recollection of his horrible vision
had covered it.
"My lord," he said, "I am no coward, I have been in all the
mortal dangers incidental to my profession, and I may truly boast
that no man ever knew Richard Browne dishonour the sword he
wears; but in these horrible circumstances, under the eyes, and,
as it seemed, almost in the grasp of an incarnation of an evil
spirit, all firmness forsook me, all manhood melted from me like
wax in the furnace, and I felt my hair individually bristle. The
current of my life-blood ceased to flow, and I sank back in a
swoon, as very a victim to panic terror as ever was a village
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: of Milan and the Venetians would not consent, because Faenza and
Rimini were already under the protection of the Venetians. Besides
this, he saw the arms of Italy, especially those by which he might
have been assisted, in hands that would fear the aggrandizement of the
Pope, namely, the Orsini and the Colonnesi and their following. It
behoved him, therefore, to upset this state of affairs and embroil the
powers, so as to make himself securely master of part of their states.
This was easy for him to do, because he found the Venetians, moved by
other reasons, inclined to bring back the French into Italy; he would
not only not oppose this, but he would render it more easy by
dissolving the former marriage of King Louis. Therefore the king came
The Prince |
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 Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: themselves in between them, crying, "Hold!"
"Is not this your law, ye councillors," said Umslopogaas, "that,
having conquered the chief of the People of the Axe, I myself am
chief?"
"That is our law indeed, stranger," answered an aged councillor, "but
this also is our law: that now you must do battle, one by one, with
all who come against you. So it was in my father's time, when the
grandfather of him who now lies dead won the axe, and so it must be
again to-day."
"I have nothing to say against the rule," said Umslopogaas. "Now who
is there who will come up against me to do battle for the axe Groan-
Nada the Lily |
