| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: in the picture the letter C. and then looked for it in the description below.
There it stood, "Count Egmont, with his horse shot under him." I
shuddered, and afterwards I could not help laughing at the woodcut figure
of Egmont, as tall as the neighbouring tower of Gravelines, and the
English ships at the side.--When I remember how I used to conceive of a
battle, and what an idea I had, as a girl, of Count Egmont; when I listened
to descriptions of him, and of all the other earls and princes; --and think
how it is with me now!
[Enter Brackenburg.
Clara. Well, what is going on?
Brackenburg. Nothing certain is known. It is rumoured that an insurrection
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: quenching his thirst. He hated it because he connected it with
the chill and discomfort of the torrential rains, and he feared
it for the thunder and lightning and wind which accompanied them.
The deep waters of the lake he had been taught by his wild
mother to avoid, and further, had he not seen little Neeta
sink beneath its quiet surface only a few short weeks before
never to return to the tribe?
But of the two evils his quick mind chose the lesser ere the
first note of Sabor's scream had scarce broken the quiet of
the jungle, and before the great beast had covered half her
leap Tarzan felt the chill waters close above his head.
Tarzan of the Apes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: Wellington; I took with me a guide, for I failed in a first
attempt, from the thickness of the wood. Our guide, however,
was a stupid fellow, and conducted us to the southern
and damp side of the mountain, where the vegetation was
very luxuriant; and where the labour of the ascent, from the
number of rotten trunks, was almost as great as on a mountain
in Tierra del Fuego or in Chiloe. It cost us five and a
half hours of hard climbing before we reached the summit.
In many parts the Eucalypti grew to a great size, and composed
a noble forest. In some of the dampest ravines, tree-
ferns flourished in an extraordinary manner; I saw one
The Voyage of the Beagle |
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 Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Then, little by little, she told me from the handkerchief, a sordid
story of a motor trip in the mountains without Mrs. Curtis, of a
lost road and a broken car, and a rainy night when they - she and
Sullivan, tramped eternally and did not get home. And of Mrs.
Curtis, when they got home at dawn, suddenly grown conventional and
deeply shocked. Of her own proud, half-disdainful consent to make
possible the hackneyed compromising situation by marrying the rascal,
and then - of his disappearance from the train. It was so terrible
to her, such a Heaven-sent relief to me, in spite of my rage against
Sullivan, that I laughed aloud. At which she looked at me over the
handkerchief.
The Man in Lower Ten |
