| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: the painful work of escape? But when I went on board again,
I told Captain Nemo of this grave complication.
"I know it," he said, in that calm tone which could counteract
the most terrible apprehensions. "It is one danger more;
but I see no way of escaping it; the only chance of safety is to go
quicker than solidification. We must be beforehand with it,
that is all."
On this day for several hours I used my pickaxe vigorously.
The work kept me up. Besides, to work was to quit the Nautilus,
and breathe directly the pure air drawn from the reservoirs,
and supplied by our apparatus, and to quit the impoverished and
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: Grandma Luty's visit was all a joy to Tattine, and so when, just at daylight
one morning, the setter puppies in their kennel at the back of the house
commenced a prodigious barking, Tattine's first thought was for Grandma.
"It's a perfect shame to have them wake her up," she said to herself, "and I
know a way to stop them," so, quiet as a mouse, she stole out of bed, slipped
into her bed-slippers and her nurse's wrapper, that was lying across a chair,
and then just as noiselessly stole downstairs, and unlocking the door leading
to the back porch, hurried to open the gate of the kennel, for simply to let
the puppies run she knew would stop their barking. Tattine was right about
that, but just as she swung the gate open, a happy thought struck those four
little puppies' minds, and as she started to run back to the house, all four
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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 Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: the maiden, and hovering wing to wing above the river,
made a bridge across which her dainty feet might carry her
in safety. But when the time for separation came, the two
wept bitterly, and their tears falling in copious showers are
the cause of the heavy rains which fall at that season of the
year.
From time immemorial it has been known that the Yellow
River is neither more nor less than a prolongation of the
Milky Way, soiled by earthly contact and contamination, and
that the homes of the Spinning Maiden and the Cow-herd
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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 Adventure by Jack London: the place just vacated by the corpse. Also, he indicated the next
weakest, telling him to wait for a place until the next man died.
Then, ordering one of the well men to take a squad from the field-
force and build a lean-to addition to the hospital, he continued
along the run-way, administering medicine and cracking jokes in
beche-de-mer English to cheer the sufferers. Now and again, from
the far end, a weird wail was raised. When he arrived there he
found the noise was emitted by a boy who was not sick. The white
man's wrath was immediate.
"What name you sing out alla time?" he demanded.
"Him fella my brother belong me," was the answer. "Him fella die
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