| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: They had several other discourses, it seems, after this; and
particularly she made him promise that, since he confessed his own
life had been a wicked, abominable course of provocations against
God, that he would reform it, and not make God angry any more, lest
He should make him dead, as she called it, and then she would be
left alone, and never be taught to know this God better; and lest
he should be miserable, as he had told her wicked men would be
after death.
This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but
particularly to the young clergyman; he was, indeed, wonderfully
surprised with it, but under the greatest affliction imaginable
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: time. I shall be in."
The poets grasped each other's hands with a rush of melancholy and
tender feeling inexpressible in words, and went their separate ways;
Lucien to fetch his manuscript, Daniel d'Arthez to pawn his watch and
buy a couple of faggots. The weather was cold, and his new-found
friend should find a fire in his room.
Lucien was punctual. He noticed at once that the house was of an even
poorer class than the Hotel de Cluny. A staircase gradually became
visible at the further end of a dark passage; he mounted to the fifth
floor, and found d'Arthez's room.
A bookcase of dark-stained wood, with rows of labeled cardboard cases
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: for Wrangle's sudden jump. A swift, hot wave, turning cold,
passed over Venters. Deliberately he picked out the one rider
with a carbine, and killed him. Wrangle snorted shrilly and
bolted into the sage. Venters let him run a few rods, then with
iron arm checked him.
Five riders, surely rustlers, were left. One leaped out of the
saddle to secure his fallen comrade's carbine. A shot from
Venters, which missed the man but sent the dust flying over him
made him run back to his horse. Then they separated. The crippled
rider went one way; the one frustrated in his attempt to get the
carbine rode another, Venters thought he made out a third rider,
Riders of the Purple Sage |
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 Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: Then the horses, roused by the driver's whistling, darted off at a
gallop on the road to Altona.
CHAPTER VIII.
SERIOUS PREPARATIONS FOR VERTICAL DESCENT
Altona, which is but a suburb of Hamburg, is the terminus of the Kiel
railway, which was to carry us to the Belts. In twenty minutes we
were in Holstein.
At half-past six the carriage stopped at the station; my uncle's
numerous packages, his voluminous _impedimenta,_ were unloaded,
removed, labelled, weighed, put into the luggage vans, and at seven
we were seated face to face in our compartment. The whistle sounded,
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
