| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: topmast the _Santa Clara_.
Still we sailed by the south coast of Hispaniola. We
knew now that it was not Cipango. But it was a great
island, natheless, and one day might be as Cipango. Beata,
Soana, Mona were the little islands that we found. We
sailed between them and our great island, and at last we
came to the corner and turned northward, and again after
days to another corner and sailed west once more, with hopes
now of Isabella. It was the first week in September.
In a great red dawn, Roderigo, the Admiral's servant,
roused Juan Lepe. ``Come--come--come, Doctor!''
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: living man, contemporary with the huge cattle-driver? But no. This is
not a relic of the stone age. It is not even of the iron age. This
blade is steel -"
My uncle stopped me abruptly on my way to a dissertation which would
have taken me a long way, and said coolly:
"Be calm, Axel, and reasonable. This dagger belongs to the sixteenth
century; it is a poniard, such as gentlemen carried in their belts to
give the coup _de grace._ Its origin is Spanish. It was never either
yours, or mine, or the hunter's, nor did it belong to any of those
human beings who may or may not inhabit this inner world. See, it was
never jagged like this by cutting men's throats; its blade is coated
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: In the light of this final humiliation his assumption of his
wife's indifference struck him as hardly so fatuous as the
sentimental resuscitation of his past. He had been living in a
factitious world wherein his emotions were the sycophants of his
vanity, and it was with instinctive relief that he felt its ruins
crash about his head.
It was nearly dark when he left his office, and he walked slowly
homeward in the complete mental abeyance that follows on such a
crisis. He was not aware that he was thinking of his wife; yet
when he reached his own door he found that, in the involuntary
readjustment of his vision, she had once more become the central
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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 Summer by Edith Wharton: Why, then, had his manner suddenly changed, and why did
he leave the library with Mr. Miles? Her restless
imagination fastened on the name of Annabel Balch: from
the moment it had been mentioned she fancied that
Harney's expression had altered. Annabel Balch at a
garden-party at Springfield, looking "extremely
handsome"...perhaps Mr. Miles had seen her there at the
very moment when Charity and Harney were sitting in the
Hyatts' hovel, between a drunkard and a half-witted old
woman! Charity did not know exactly what a garden-party
was, but her glimpse of the flower-edged lawns of
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