| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: leave you here."
"Common humanity!" exclaimed the being, with a scornful laugh
that sounded like a shriek, "where got ye that catch-word--that
noose for woodcocks--that common disguise for man-traps--that
bait which the wretched idiot who swallows, will soon find covers
a hook with barbs ten times sharper than those you lay for the
animals which you murder for your luxury!"
"I tell you, my friend," again replied Earnscliff, "you are
incapable of judging of your own situation--you will perish in
this wilderness, and we must, in compassion, force you along with
us."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: lucid statements, and by changing the position of objects and lights,
and by allowing me to feel the several objects and even his own
sacred Person, he at last made all things clear to me,
so that I could now readily distinguish between a Circle and a Sphere,
a Plane Figure and a Solid.
This was the Climax, the Paradise, of my strange eventful History.
Henceforth I have to relate the story of my miserable Fall: --
most miserable, yet surely most undeserved! For why should the thirst
for knowledge be aroused, only to be disappointed and punished?
My volition shrinks from the painful task of recalling my humiliation;
yet, like a second Prometheus, I will endure this and worse,
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: thickets of juniper and manzanita and jumbles of weathered cliff they
were exceedingly difficult to catch.
Well it was that Hare had received his initiation and had become inured
to rough, incessant work, for now he came to know the real stuff of which
these Mormons were made. No obstacle barred them. They penetrated the
gullies to the last step; they rode weathered slopes that were difficult
for deer to stick upon; they thrashed the bayonet-guarded manzanita
copses; they climbed into labyrinthine fastnesses, penetrating to every
nook where a steer could hide. Miles of sliding slope and
marble-bottomed streambeds were ascended on foot, for cattle could climb
where a horse could not. Climbing was arduous enough, yet the hardest
The Heritage of the Desert |
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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: XVIII.
"You must get out every evening at ten o'clock," replied Herrera.
"Make your way pretty briskly to the Bois de Vincennes, the Bois de
Meudon, and de Ville-d'Avray. If any one should follow you, let them
do it; be free of speech, chatty, open to a bribe. Talk about
Rubempre's jealousy and his mad passion for madame, saying that he
would not on any account have it known that he had a mistress of that
kind."
"Enough.--Must I have any weapons?"
"Never!" exclaimed Carlos vehemently. "A weapon? Of what use would
that be? To get us into a scrape. Do not under any circumstances use
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