| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: growth, and few people have seen it growing. For a time,
however, the red weed grew with astonishing vigour and
luxuriance. It spread up the sides of the pit by the third or
fourth day of our imprisonment, and its cactus-like branches
formed a carmine fringe to the edges of our triangular
window. And afterwards I found it broadcast throughout the
country, and especially wherever there was a stream of water.
The Martians had what appears to have been an auditory
organ, a single round drum at the back of the head-body,
and eyes with a visual range not very different from ours
except that, according to Philips, blue and violet were as
War of the Worlds |
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 Call of the Wild by Jack London: what made him dangerous was the fact that the club of the man in
the red sweater had knocked all blind pluck and rashness out of
his desire for mastery. He was preeminently cunning, and could
bide his time with a patience that was nothing less than
primitive.
It was inevitable that the clash for leadership should come. Buck
wanted it. He wanted it because it was his nature, because he had
been gripped tight by that nameless, incomprehensible pride of the
trail and trace--that pride which holds dogs in the toil to the
last gasp, which lures them to die joyfully in the harness, and
breaks their hearts if they are cut out of the harness. This was
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