| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: fright, they too took to their heels--for there, lumbering down
upon them, their huge forms exaggerated by the play of
moonlight and camp fire, came the hideous apes of Akut.
The instant the natives turned to flee the ape-man's savage
cry rang out above the shrieks of the blacks, and in answer
to it Sheeta and the apes leaped growling after the fugitives.
Some of the warriors turned to battle with their enraged
antagonists, but before the fiendish ferocity of the fierce beasts
they went down to bloody death.
Others were dragged down in their flight, and it was not
until the village was empty and the last of the blacks had
The Beasts of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: about methods of real soul culture--and you seem to know a great deal."
Be that as it might, they certainly presented a higher level of
active intelligence, and of behavior, than we had so far really
grasped. Having known in our lives several people who showed
the same delicate courtesy and were equally pleasant to live with,
at least when they wore their "company manners," we had assumed
that our companions were a carefully chosen few. Later we were
more and more impressed that all this gentle breeding was breeding;
that they were born to it, reared in it, that it was as natural
and universal with them as the gentleness of doves or the alleged
wisdom of serpents.
Herland |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: as it doubled, reduced the length of her neck, and hindered the easy
carriage of her head. Rose had no wrinkles, but she had folds of
flesh; and jesters declared that to save chafing she powdered her skin
as they do an infant's.
This ample person offered to a young man full of ardent desires like
Athanase an attraction to which he had succumbed. Young imaginations,
essentially eager and courageous, like to rove upon these fine living
sheets of flesh. Rose was like a plump partridge attracting the knife
of a gourmet. Many an elegant deep in debt would very willingly have
resigned himself to make the happiness of Mademoiselle Cormon. But,
alas! the poor girl was now forty years old. At this period, after
|
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 Odyssey by Homer: now, old man, get thee home and prophesy to thine own
children, lest haply they suffer harm hereafter: but herein
am I a far better prophet than thou. Howbeit there be many
birds that fly to and fro under the sun's rays, but all are
not birds of fate. Now as for Odysseus, he hath perished
far away, as would that thou too with him hadst been cut
off: so wouldst thou not have babbled thus much prophecy,
nor wouldst thou hound on Telemachus that is already
angered, expecting a gift for thy house, if perchance he
may vouchsafe thee aught. But now will I speak out, and my
word shall surely be accomplished. If thou that knowest
The Odyssey |
