| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: What would become of these bold travelers in the immediate future?
If they did not die of hunger, if they did not die of thirst,
in some days, when the gas failed, they would die from want of air,
unless the cold had killed them first. Still, important as it was
to economize the gas, the excessive lowness of the surrounding
temperature obliged them to consume a certain quantity.
Strictly speaking, they could do without its _light_, but not
without its _heat_. Fortunately the caloric generated by Reiset's
and Regnaut's apparatus raised the temperature of the interior
of the projectile a little, and without much expenditure they
were able to keep it bearable.
From the Earth to the Moon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: from America to France, became the principles of the French
Revolution. From England went forth the philosophy of Locke, with
all its immense results. It is noteworthy, that when Voltaire tries
to persuade people, in a certain famous passage, that philosophers
do not care to trouble the world--of the ten names to whom he does
honour, seven names are English. "It is," he says, "neither
Montaigne, nor Locke, nor Boyle, nor Spinoza, nor Hobbes, nor Lord
Shaftesbury, nor Mr. Collins, nor Mr. Toland, nor Fludd, nor Baker,
who have carried the torch of discord into their countries." It is
worth notice, that not only are the majority of these names English,
but that they belong not to the latter but to the former half of the
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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 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: mounds and ridges about the base of the bole, the tree
tilted--in another moment it would be uprooted and fall.
The ape-man whirled La to his back and just as the tree
inclined slowly in its first movement out of the
perpendicular, before the sudden rush of its final
collapse, he swung to the branches of a lesser
neighbor. It was a long and perilous leap. La closed
her eyes and shuddered; but when she opened them again
she found herself safe and Tarzan whirling onward
through the forest. Behind them the uprooted tree
crashed heavily to the ground, carrying with it the
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
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 War in the Air by H. G. Wells: him out for an instant. Every one was talking of thebattle,
suggesting, contradicting--at times, until the petty officers
hushed them, it rose to a greatuproar. There was a new bulletin,
but what it said he did not gather except that it concerned the
Barbarossa. Some of the men stared at him, and he heard the name
of "Booteraidge" several times; but no one molested him, and
there was no difficulty about his soup and bread when his turn at
the end of the queue came. He had feared there might be no
ration for him, and if so he did not know what he would have
done.
Afterwards he ventured out upon the little hanging gallery with
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