| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of the plaza without detection. As I approached the purlieus
of the inhabited portion of the city I was made aware of the
proximity of the warriors' quarters by the squealing and
grunting of the thoats and zitidars corralled within the hollow
courtyards formed by the buildings surrounding each square.
These old familiar sounds that are so distinctive of green
Martian life sent a thrill of pleasure surging through me. It was
as one might feel on coming home after a long absence. It
was amid such sounds that I had first courted the incomparable
Dejah Thoris in the age-old marble halls of the dead city of Korad.
As I stood in the shadows at the far corner of the first
The Gods of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: Under their orders the College of Physicians drew up "Certain
necessary Directions for the Prevention and Cure of the Plague,
with Divers remedies for small Change," which were printed in
pamphlet form, and widely distributed amongst the people. [We
learn that at this time the College was stored with "men of
learning, virtue, and probity, nothing acquainted with the little
arts of getting a name by plotting against the honesty and
credulity of the people." The prescriptions given by this worthy
body were consequently received with a simple faith which later
and more sceptical generations might deny them. Perhaps the most
remarkable of these directions, given under the heading of
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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 Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: imbecility. Such a character will drag a man down into the mire if he
is left to himself, or bring him to the highest heights of political
power if he has some stern friend to keep him in hand. Neither
Chesnel, nor the lad's father, nor Aunt Armande had fathomed the
depths of a nature so nearly akin on many sides to the poetic
temperament, yet smitten with a terrible weakness at its core.
By the time the old town lay several miles away, Victurnien felt not
the slightest regret; he thought no more about the father, who had
loved ten generations in his son, nor of the aunt, and her almost
insane devotion. He was looking forward to Paris with vehement ill-
starred longings; in thought he had lived in that fairyland, it had
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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 A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: seven young girls in five minutes. The Captain had told me to shoot these
French sows, but I preferred to run my bayonet through them"--private
Johann Wenger to his German sweetheart, dated Peronne, March 16, 1915.
Germany, whose newspaper the Cologne Volkszettung deplored the doings of
her Kultur on land and sea thus: "Much as we detest it as human beings
and as Christians, yet we exult in it as Germans."
Agreeable Germany!--whose Kaiser, if his fleet had been larger, would
have taken us by the scruff of the neck.
"Then Thou, Almighty One, send Thy lightnings!
Let dwellings and cottages become ashes in the heat of fire.
Let the people in hordes burn and drown with wife and child.
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