| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it
creates
a proletariat, as that it creates a revolutionary proletariat.
In political practice, therefore, they join in all coercive
measures against the working class; and in ordinary life, despite
their high falutin phrases, they stoop to pick up the golden
apples dropped from the tree of industry, and to barter truth,
love,
and honour for traffic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and potato
spirits.
As the parson has ever gone band in hand with the landlord,
The Communist Manifesto |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: Rose was immediately sent out to hold a parley with them, and
invite them to the camp. They proved to be two scouts from the
same band that had been tracked for some days past, and which was
now encamped at some distance in the folds of the mountain. They
were easily prevailed upon to come to the camp, where they were
well received, and, after remaining there until late in the
evening, departed to make a report of all they had seen and
experienced to their companions.
The following day had scarce dawned, when a troop of these wild
mountain scamperers came galloping with whoops and yells into the
camp, bringing an invitation from their chief for the white men
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: himself. Speak on, nephew.'
Then I sat down by the bed and told him all, keeping nothing back.
I told him the history of my mother and my father's courtship, of
my own childhood, of the murder of my mother by de Garcia, and of
the oath that I had sworn to be avenged upon him. Lastly I told
him of what had happened upon the previous night and how my enemy
had evaded me. All the while that I was speaking Fonseca, wrapped
in a rich Moorish robe, sat up in the bed holding his knees beneath
his chin, and watching my face with his keen eyes. But he spoke no
word and made no sign till I had finished the tale.
'You are strangely foolish, nephew,' he said at length. 'For the
Montezuma's Daughter |
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 Master Key by L. Frank Baum: the entire day he continued to travel over a boundless waste of ocean,
without the sight of even an island to cheer him.
The sun shone so hot that he regretted he had not brought an umbrella.
But he wore a wide-brimmed straw hat, which protected him somewhat,
and he finally discovered that by rising to a considerable distance
above the ocean he avoided the reflection of the sun upon the water
and also came with the current of good breeze.
Of course he dared no stop, for there was no place to land; so he
calmly continued his journey.
"It may be I've missed Cuba," he thought; "but I can not change my
course now, for if I did I might get lost, and never be able to find
The Master Key |
