| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: volcano,--a plain sign that there was something underground which
joined them together, perhaps a long crack in the earth. Look for
yourselves at the places, and you will see that (as Humboldt says)
it is as strange as if an eruption of Mount Vesuvius was heard in
the north of France.
So it seems as if these lines of volcanos stood along cracks in
the rind of the earth, through which the melted stuff inside was
for ever trying to force its way; and that, as the crack got
stopped up in one place by the melted stuff cooling and hardening
again into stone, it was burst in another place, and a fresh
volcano made, or an old one re-opened.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: others, that we may be going into war, but I give you my word of
honour I do not know with whom.'
'And you put up with it?' she cried. 'I have no pretensions to
morality; and I confess I have always abominated the lamb, and
nourished a romantic feeling for the wolf. O, be done with
lambiness! Let us see there is a prince, for I am weary of the
distaff.'
'Madam,' said Otto, 'I thought you were of that faction.'
'I should be of yours, MON PRINCE, if you had one,' she retorted.
'Is it true that you have no ambition? There was a man once in
England whom they call the kingmaker. Do you know,' she added, 'I
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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 When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: of your race."
"Then we shall perish of heat," said Bickley, "for with every
thousand feet the temperature rises many degrees."
"Not so. You will pass through a zone of heat, but so swiftly
that if you hold your breath you will not suffer overmuch. Then
you will come to a place where a great draught blows which will
keep you cool, and thence travel on to the end."
"Yes, but to what end, Lady Yva?"
"That you will see for yourselves, and with it other wondrous
things."
Here some new idea seemed to strike her, and after a little
When the World Shook |
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 Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: Theodore with the intuitive knowledge that one child has of
another's ways.
"Fanny!" The keen brown eyes were upon her.
"Some boys were picking on Clarence Heyl, and it made me
mad. They called him names."
"What names?"
"Oh, names."
"Fanny dear, if you're going to fight every time you hear
that name----"
Fanny thought of the torn sweater, the battered Zola, the
scratched cheek. "It is pretty expensive," she said
Fanny Herself |
