| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: not yet finished, and grandfather was expected, by railroad,
pretty early in the morning. Faster and faster, therefore, went
her flying fingers. The children, likewise, kept busily at work
in the garden, and still the mother listened, whenever she could
catch a word. She was amused to observe how their little
imaginations had got mixed up with what they were doing, and
carried away by it. They seemed positively to think that the
snow-child would run about and play with them.
"What a nice playmate she will be for us, all winter long!" said
Violet. "I hope papa will not be afraid of her giving us a cold!
Sha'n't you love her dearly, Peony?"
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: and to force you to confess your crimes."
"Are you mad, my dear Master Gryphus?" asked Cornelius.
And, as he now for the first time observed the frenzied
features, the flashing eyes, and foaming mouth of the old
jailer, he said, --
"Bless the man, he is more than mad, he is furious."
Gryphus flourished his stick above his head, but Van Baerle
moved not, and remained standing with his arms akimbo.
"It seems your intention to threaten me, Master Gryphus."
"Yes, indeed, I threaten you," cried the jailer.
"And with what?"
The Black Tulip |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: departed in haste. At the doorway they halted and the officer
turned sternly upon the warrior. With upraised finger he pointed
at Ghek.
"There sits the creature! Didst thou dare lie, then, to thy
dwar?"
"I swear," cried the warrior, "that I spoke the truth. But a
moment since the thing groveled, headless, upon this very table!
And may my first ancestor strike me dead upon the spot if I speak
other than a true word!"
The officer looked puzzled. The men of Mars seldom if ever lie.
He scratched his head. Then he addressed Ghek. "How long have you
The Chessmen of Mars |
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 Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: detected him, he would not allow so inquisitive a person to remain in
his house. He contented himself, therefore, by looking first at the
egg and then at the old woman, occasionally contemplating his future
master.
Louis XI.'s silversmith resembled that monarch. He had even acquired
the same gestures, as often happens where persons dwell together in a
sort of intimacy. The thick eyebrows of the Fleming almost covered his
eyes; but by raising them a little he could flash out a lucid,
penetrating, powerful glance, the glance of men habituated to silence,
and to whom the phenomenon of the concentration of inward forces has
become familiar. His thin lips, vertically wrinkled, gave him an air
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