| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: of that clear common sense which pardons evil
wherever it sees that evil is inevitable or im-
possible of annihilation.
CHAPTER VII
IN the meantime we had finished our tea.
The horses, which had been put to long
before, were freezing in the snow. In the west
the moon was growing pale, and was just on the
point of plunging into the black clouds which
were hanging over the distant summits like the
shreds of a torn curtain. We went out of 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 Master of the World by Jules Verne: merely imagined it.
Well, though his companions had not had the politeness to answer me,
perhaps he would be more courteous. He spoke the same language as I,
although I could not feel quite positive that he was of American
birth. He might indeed have decided to pretend not to understand me,
so as to avoid all discussion while he held me prisoner.
In that case, what did he mean to do with me? Did he intend to
dispose of me without further ceremony? Was he only waiting for night
to throw me overboard? Did even the little which I knew of him, make
me a danger of which he must rid himself? But in that case, he might
better have left me at the end of his anchor line. That would have
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