| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: summer clouds float across the sun. And then she lay all white
and still, and the doctor turned up one of her eyelids. She was
quite unconscious. Raymond pressed hard on one of the levers
and the chair instantly sank back. Clarke saw him cutting away
a circle, like a tonsure, from her hair, and the lamp was moved
nearer. Raymond took a small glittering instrument from a
little case, and Clarke turned away shudderingly. When he
looked again the doctor was binding up the wound he had made.
"She will awake in five minutes." Raymond was still
perfectly cool. "There is nothing more to be done; we can only
wait."
The Great God Pan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: They were passing through on their way to the outside world
along the corridors we had just traversed.
At sight of us they halted in their tracks, and then an ugly
smile overspread the features of their leader.
"The author of all our misfortunes!" he cried, pointing at me.
"We shall have the satisfaction of a partial vengeance at least
when we leave behind us here the dead and mutilated corpses of the
Prince and Princess of Helium.
The Warlord of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: value will have been reduced to a score or less. The
inconveniences and disadvantages arising from the utilisation of
a wide variety of different types are manifold, the greatest
being the necessity of carrying a varied assortment of spare
parts, and confusion in the repair and overhauling shops.
The methodical Teuton was the first to grasp the significance of
these drawbacks; he has accordingly carried standardisation to a
high degree of efficiency, as is shown in another chapter. At a
later date France appreciated the wisdom of the German practice,
and within a short time after the outbreak of hostilities
promptly ruled out certain types of machines which were regarded
|
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 Moby Dick by Herman Melville: a point only.' But now comes the greatest joke of the dream, Flask.
While I was battering away at the pyramid, a sort of badger-haired
old merman, with a hump on his back, takes me by the shoulders, and
slews me round. 'What are you 'bout?' says he. Slid! man, but I was
frightened. Such a phiz! But, somehow, next moment I was over the
fright. 'What am I about?' says I at last. 'And what business is
that of yours, I should like to know, Mr. Humpback? Do YOU want a
kick?' By the lord, Flask, I had no sooner said that, than he turned
round his stern to me, bent over, and dragging up a lot of seaweed he
had for a clout--what do you think, I saw?--why thunder alive, man,
his stern was stuck full of marlinspikes, with the points out. Says
Moby Dick |
