| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: day. Means four o'clock at the corner of Broadway
and Twenty-third."
"But the geranium?" persisted Ravenel, clutch-
ing at the end of flying Romance's trailing robe.
"Means half-past 5," shouted Sammy from the hall.
"See you to-morrow."
THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT
"During the recent warmed-over spell," said my
friend Carney, driver of express wagon No. 8,606,
"a good many opportunities was had of observing
human nature through peekaboo waists.
The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: He did not end his sentence; the north wind blew at that moment with
such ferocity that the aide-de-camp hurried on to escape being frozen,
and the lips of Major de Sucy stiffened. Silence reigned, broken only
by the moans which came from the house, and the dull sound made by the
major's horse as it chewed in a fury of hunger the icy bark of the
trees with which the house was built. Monsieur de Sucy replaced his
sabre in its scabbard, took the bridle of the precious horse he had
hitherto been able to preserve, and led it, in spite of the animal's
resistance, from the wretched fodder it appeared to think excellent.
"We'll start, Bichette, we'll start! There's none but you, my beauty,
who can save Stephanie. Ha! by and bye you and I may be able to rest--
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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 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: did not say so, became tenderer to him, and they experienced new,
redoubled happiness in their love. But that did not prevent such
quarrels from happening again, and exceedingly often too, on the
most unexpected and trivial grounds. These quarrels frequently
arose from the fact that they did not yet-know what was of
importance to each other and that all this early period they were
both often in a bad temper. When one was in a good temper, and
the other in a bad temper, the peace was not broken; but when
both happened to be in an ill-humor, quarrels sprang up from such
incomprehensibly trifling causes, that they could never remember
afterwards what they had quarreled about. It is true that when
Anna Karenina |
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 A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of surprise which my actions elicited from the Martians were
ludicrous; they could not understand, except in a feeble and
childish way, such attributes as gratitude and compassion.
The warrior whose gun I had struck up looked enquiringly at
Tars Tarkas, but the latter signed that I be left to my own
devices, and so we returned to the plaza with my great beast
following close at heel, and Sola grasping me tightly by the
arm.
I had at least two friends on Mars; a young woman who
watched over me with motherly solicitude, and a dumb brute
which, as I later came to know, held in its poor ugly carcass
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