| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of the hated Devil of Torn than with your own mighty
father, or your royal uncle."
"It is said that you never lie, Norman of Torn,"
spoke the girl, "and I believe you, but tell me why
you thus befriend a De Montfort."
"It is not for love of your father or your brothers,
nor yet hatred of Peter of Colfax, nor neither for any
reward whatsoever. It pleases me to do as I do, that
is all. Come."
He led her in silence to the courtyard and across the
lowered drawbridge, to where they soon discovered a
The Outlaw of Torn |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: "In enumerating the particular comforts of life, we shall find many
advantages on the side of the Europeans. They cure wounds and
diseases with which we languish and perish. We suffer inclemencies
of weather which they can obviate. They have engines for the
despatch of many laborious works, which we must perform by manual
industry. There is such communication between distant places that
one friend can hardly be said to be absent from another. Their
policy removes all public inconveniences; they have roads cut
through the mountains, and bridges laid over their rivers. And, if
we descend to the privacies of life, their habitations are more
commodious and their possessions are more secure."
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: I would you had her, Prince, with all my heart,
With my full heart: but there were widows here,
Two widows, Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche;
They fed her theories, in and out of place
Maintaining that with equal husbandry
The woman were an equal to the man.
They harped on this; with this our banquets rang;
Our dances broke and buzzed in knots of talk;
Nothing but this; my very ears were hot
To hear them: knowledge, so my daughter held,
Was all in all: they had but been, she thought,
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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 A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: It's wonderful how they find out everything that's going on - the
animals. They - "
"Do you really believe they do, Dorcas?"
"I don't only just believe it, Marse Tom, I know it. Day before
yesterday they knew something was going to happen. They were that
excited, and whispering around together; why, anybody could see
that they - But my! I must get back to her, and I haven't got to
my errand yet."
"What is it, Dorcas?"
"Well, it's two or three things. One is, the doctor don't salute
when he comes . . . Now, Marse Tom, it ain't anything to laugh at,
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