| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: which had much in it, I at first thought, of an overdone
cordiality--of the constrained effort of the ennuye man of
the world. A glance, however, at his countenance, convinced me
of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; and for some moments,
while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity,
half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered,
in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with
difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the
wan being before me with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet
the character of his face had been at all times remarkable. A
cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: set sail for Ptarth. There we remained, the guest of Thuvan Dihn,
for a month; and I could see that Carthoris would have remained
forever had he not been a Prince of Helium.
Above the mighty forests of Kaol we hovered until word from
Kulan Tith brought us to his single landing-tower, where all day
and half a night the vessels disembarked their crews. At the city
of Kaol we visited, cementing the new ties that had been formed
between Kaol and Helium, and then one long-to-be-remembered day we
sighted the tall, thin towers of the twin cities of Helium.
The Warlord of Mars |
