| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: or the cruel Wamabos. Tarzan of the Apes loved unfettered
freedom, and now that these two were safely off his hands, he
felt that he could continue upon his journey toward the
west coast and the long-untenanted cabin of his dead father.
And yet, as he stood there watching the tiny speck in the
east, another sigh heaved his broad chest, nor was it a sigh
of relief, but rather a sensation which Tarzan had never
expected to feel again and which he now disliked to admit
even to himself. It could not be possible that he, the jungle
bred, who had renounced forever the society of man to return
to his beloved beasts of the wilds, could be feeling anything
Tarzan the Untamed |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: Beneficent streams of tears flow at the finger of pain;
And out of the cloud that smites, beneficent rivers of rain.
Vailima.
XL - AN END OF TRAVEL
LET now your soul in this substantial world
Some anchor strike. Be here the body moored; -
This spectacle immutably from now
The picture in your eye; and when time strikes,
And the green scene goes on the instant blind -
The ultimate helpers, where your horse to-day
Conveyed you dreaming, bear your body dead.
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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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: tremendous quintet grounded on the fundamental bass--and he is dying!
Mahomet is world-weary; he has exhausted everything. Now he craves to
die a god. Arabia, in fact, worships and prays to him, and we return
to the first melancholy strain (C minor) to which the curtain rose.
"Now, do you not discern," said Gambara, ceasing to play, and turning
to the Count, "in this picturesque and vivid music--abrupt, grotesque,
or melancholy, but always grand--the complete expression of the life
of an epileptic, mad for enjoyment, unable to read or write, using all
his defects as stepping-stones, turning every blunder and disaster
into a triumph? Did not you feel a sense of his fascination exerted
over a greedy and lustful race, in this overture, which is an epitome
Gambara |
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 Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: for his health, anyway? Wha' 'n hell's he want Uma for?"
"Dry up, Papa," said Case. "'Tain't you that's to marry her. I
guess you're not her godfather and godmother. I guess Mr.
Wiltshire's going to please himself."
With that he made an excuse to me that he must move about the
marriage, and left me alone with the poor wretch that was his
partner and (to speak truth) his gull. Trade and station belonged
both to Randall; Case and the negro were parasites; they crawled
and fed upon him like the flies, he none the wiser. Indeed, I have
no harm to say of Billy Randall beyond the fact that my gorge rose
at him, and the time I now passed in his company was like a
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