| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: efforts of our own, and that the people who had shunned us with the
strongest detestation were yet lovers of truth, and came to us on
their own accord. Nothing could be more grossly absurd than the
reproaches which the Abyssinian ecclesiastics aspersed us and our
religion with. They had taken advantage of the calamity that
happened the year of our arrival: and the Abyssins, with all their
wit, did not consider that they had often been distressed by the
grasshoppers before there came any Jesuits into the country, and
indeed before there were any in the world.
Whilst I was in these mountains, I went on Sundays and saints' days
sometimes to one church and sometimes to another. One day I went
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: announced to him his nomination as marechal de camp, or brigadier-
general, under a rule which allowed the officers of the Catholic
armies to count the twenty submerged years of Louis XVIII.'s reign as
years of service. Some days later he further received, without any
solicitation, ex officio, the crosses of the Legion of Honor and of
Saint-Louis.
Shaken in his determination by these successive favors, due, as he
supposed, to the monarch's remembrance, he was no longer satisfied
with taking his family, as he had piously done every Sunday, to cry
"Vive le Roi" in the hall of the Tuileries when the royal family
passed through on their way to chapel; he craved the favor of a
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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 Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of intelligence. Into the hands of such, he realized,
he had fallen; but--what were their intentions toward him?
As he glanced about the courtyard, he saw fully fifty
of the hideous beasts, squatting on their haunches,
and at a little distance from him another human being,
closely guarded.
As his eyes met those of his fellow-captive a smile
lit the other's face, and: "Kaor, red man!" burst from
his lips. It was Kar Komak, the bowman.
"Kaor!" cried Carthoris, in response. "How came you
here, and what befell the princess?"
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
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 Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: the situation. He was still chuckling when I came back.
"Train to Richmond at six-thirty A.M.," I said. "What time is it
now?"
"Four. Listen, Lollie. We've got him. Do you hear? Through the
woman at Baltimore. Then the other woman, the lady of the
restaurant" - he was obviously avoiding names - "she is playing our
cards for us. No - I don't know why, and I don't care. But you be
at the Incubator to-night at eight o'clock. If you can't shake
Johnson, bring him, bless him."
To this day I believe the Sam Forbeses have not recovered from the
surprise of my unexpected arrival, my one appearance at dinner in
The Man in Lower Ten |
