| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: victory over the men of the Blentz faction.
Von der Tann knew that they would fight to the last ditch
for their hero should he come to claim the crown. Yet how
would they fight--to which side would they cleave, were
he to attempt to frustrate the design of the Regent to seize
the throne of Lutha?
Already Peter of Blentz had approached the bishop, who,
eager to propitiate whoever seemed most likely to become
king, gave the signal for the procession that was to mark
the solemn bearing of the crown of Lutha up the aisle to
the chancel.
The Mad King |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: discovery perplexed her not a little, but so changed
were her relations with her father that she would not
question him upon this or any other subject.
As the two chests were being carried into the central
campong, Sing, who was standing near Virginia, called
her attention to the fact that Bududreen was one of those
who staggered beneath the weight of the heavier burden.
"Bludleen, him mate. Why workee alsame lascar boy? Eh?"
But Virginia could give no reason.
"I am afraid you don't like Bududreen, Sing," she said.
"Has he ever harmed you in any way?"
The Monster Men |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: the father expiating his crime. We dared not look at the rock where
sat the fatal man who held the whole countryside in awe. A few clouds
dimmed the skies; mists were creeping up from the horizon. We walked
through a landscape more bitterly gloomy than any our eyes had ever
rested on, a nature that seemed sickly, suffering, covered with salty
crust, the eczema, it might be called, of earth. Here, the soil was
mapped out in squares of unequal size and shape, all encased with
enormous ridges or embankments of gray earth and filled with water, to
the surface of which the salt scum rises. These gullies, made by the
hand of man, are again divided by causeways, along which the laborers
pass, armed with long rakes, with which they drag this scum to the
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: business had retired to the nearest rising ground, the Lacedaemonian
polemarch, who might have taken as many heavy, or light, infantry of
the allies as he wanted, and thus have held the position (no bad one,
since it enabled him to get his supplies safely enough from
Cenchreae), failed to do so. On the contrary, and in spite of the
great perplexity of the Thebans as to how they were to get down from
the high level facing Sicyon or else retire the way they came, the
Spartan general made a truce, which in the opinion of the majority,
seemed more in favour of the Thebans than himself, and so he withdrew
his division and fell back.
[13] Lit. "thirty stades."
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