| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: I must confess to a feeling of awe as we entered the rotunda
of the great building. Pieces of massive furniture of
another day still stood where man had placed them centuries
ago. They were littered with dust and broken stone and
plaster, but, otherwise, so perfect was their preservation I
could hardly believe that two centuries had rolled by since
human eyes were last set upon them.
Through one great room after another we wandered, hand in
hand, while Victory asked many questions and for the first
time I began to realize something of the magnificence and
power of the race from whose loins she had sprung.
Lost Continent |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: `Do you,' said I, looking at the shore, `call it "unsound method?"'
`Without doubt,' he exclaimed hotly. `Don't you?' . . . `No
method at all,' I murmured after a while. `Exactly,' he exulted.
`I anticipated this. Shows a complete want of judgment.
It is my duty to point it out in the proper quarter.' `Oh,' said I,
`that fellow--what's his name?--the brickmaker, will make
a readable report for you.' He appeared confounded for a moment.
It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile,
and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief--positively for relief.
`Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,'
I said with emphasis. He started, dropped on me a heavy glance,
Heart of Darkness |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: "Seven-Three-Nine!" Danglar had almost decoded the message word for
word in the course of his conversation. In the little notebook, set
against the figures, were the words: "Danger. The game is off.
Make no further move." It was only one of many, that arbitrary
arrangement of figures, each combination having its own special
significance; but, besides these, there was the key to a complete
cipher into which any message might be coded, and - But why was her
brain swerving off at inconsequential tangents? What did a coder or
code book, matter at the present moment?
She was standing under the narrow trap-door in the low ceiling now,
and now she pushed it up, and lifting the candle through the
|
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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: [9] Landowner.
"But you yourself maintain workshops?" remarked Platon.
"I do; but who established them? They established themselves. For
instance, wool had accumulated, and since I had nowhere to store it, I
began to weave it into cloth--but, mark you, only into good, plain
cloth of which I can dispose at a cheap rate in the local markets, and
which is needed by peasants, including my own. Again, for six years on
end did the fish factories keep dumping their offal on my bank of the
river; wherefore, at last, as there was nothing to be done with it, I
took to boiling it into glue, and cleared forty thousand roubles by
the process."
Dead Souls |
