| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: I sai what evere comth to mowthe,
And worse I wolde, if that I cowthe;
For whanne I come unto hir speche,
Al that I may enquere and seche
Of such deceipte, I telle it al,
And ay the werste in special. 490
So fayn I wolde that sche wiste
How litel thei ben forto triste,
And what thei wolde and what thei mente,
So as thei be of double entente:
Thus toward hem that wicke mene
Confessio Amantis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: He who had first spoken turned toward the man who
squatted before the control board.
"Now!" he whispered. There was no other order given.
Every man upon the craft had evidently been well schooled
in each detail of that night's work. Silently the dark hull
crept beneath the cathedral arches of the dark and silent grove.
Thuvia of Ptarth, gazing toward the east, saw the blacker blot
against the blackness of the trees as the craft topped the
buttressed garden wall. She saw the dim bulk incline gently
downward toward the scarlet sward of the garden.
She knew that men came not thus with honourable intent.
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
