| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: remonstrating with them,' replied the merchant. 'You know they
wouldn't hesitate to drive a man to death. They have no pity,
they only consider themselves. . . . You've been told you cannot
see him. Go away! To-morrow!' And he got rid of them all.
He took all these pains because he liked order and liked to
domineer and drive the people away, but chiefly because he wanted
to have Father Sergius to himself. He was a widower with an only
daughter who was an invalid and unmarried, and whom he had
brought fourteen hundred versts to Father Sergius to be healed.
For two years past he had been taking her to different places to
be cured: first to the university clinic in the chief town of the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: the different continents became more and more dangerous.
The public demanded sharply that the seas should at any price be
relieved from this formidable cetacean. [1]
[1] Member of the whale family.
CHAPTER II
PRO AND CON
At the period when these events took place, I had just returned
from a scientific research in the disagreeable territory
of Nebraska, in the United States. In virtue of my office
as Assistant Professor in the Museum of Natural History in Paris,
the French Government had attached me to that expedition.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: but Charles would neither eat nor drink. Thereupon, Henry
came to visit him in his quarters. "Noble cousin," said he,
"how are you?" Charles replied that he was well. "Why,
then, do you neither eat nor drink?" And then with some
asperity, as I imagine, the young duke told him that "truly
he had no inclination for food." And our Henry improved the
occasion with something of a snuffle, assuring his prisoner
that God had fought against the French on account of their
manifold sins and transgressions. Upon this there supervened
the agonies of a rough sea passage; and many French lords,
Charles, certainly, among the number, declared they would
|
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 War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: poor and needy . . . ! The wine press of God!"
Then he would suddenly revert to the matter of the food
I withheld from him, praying, begging, weeping, at last
threatening. He began to raise his voice--I prayed him not
to. He perceived a hold on me--he threatened he would
shout and bring the Martians upon us. For a time that scared
me; but any concession would have shortened our chance
of escape beyond estimating. I defied him, although I felt
no assurance that he might not do this thing. But that day,
at any rate, he did not. He talked with his voice rising slowly,
through the greater part of the eighth and ninth days--
War of the Worlds |
