| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of the doctor, there could be no question but that
he was a very brave man!
Von Horn's rash adventure had been suggested by the hope
that he might, by bribing some of the natives with Barunda's uncle,
make way with the treasure before Muda Saffir arrived to claim it,
or, failing that, learn its exact whereabouts that he might
return for it with an adequate force later. That he was taking
his life in his hands he well knew, but so great was the man's
cupidity that he reckoned no risk too great for the acquirement
of a fortune.
The two Dyaks, paddling in silence up the dark river,
The Monster Men |
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 Middlemarch by George Eliot: he had his bypaths where there were little joys of his own choosing,
such as gentlemen cantering on the highroad might have thought
rather idiotic. The way in which he made a sort of happiness for
himself out of his feeling for Dorothea was an example of this.
It may seem strange, but it is the fact, that the ordinary vulgar
vision of which Mr. Casaubon suspected him--namely, that Dorothea
might become a widow, and that the interest he had established
in her mind might turn into acceptance of him as a husband--
had no tempting, arresting power over him; he did not live
in the scenery of such an event, and follow it out, as we all do
with that imagined "otherwise" which is our practical heaven.
Middlemarch |
