| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: services. At midday dinner was served in the big room of August Naab's
cabin. At one end was a stone fireplace where logs blazed and crackled.
In all his days Hare had never seen such a bountiful board. Yet he was
unable to appreciate it, to share in the general thanksgiving.
Dominating all other feeling was the fear that Mescal would come in and
take a seat by Snap Naab's side. When Snap seated himself opposite with
his pale little wife Hare found himself waiting for Mescal with an
intensity that made him dead to all else. The girls, Judith, Esther,
Rebecca, came running gayly in, clad in their best dresses, with bright
ribbons to honor the occasion. Rebecca took the seat beside Snap, and
Hare gulped with a hard contraction of his throat. Mescal was not yet a
The Heritage of the Desert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: slight relief when she discovered that she was to have at least
one friend with her, however powerless to assist her the old
woman might be.
The messengers conducted the two to a small apartment on
the floor below. Xanila explained that this was one of the
anterooms off the main throneroom in which the king was
accustomed to hold court with his entire retinue. A number
of yellow-tunicked warriors sat about upon the benches within
the room. For the most part their eyes were bent upon the
floor and their attitudes that of moody dejection. As the two
women entered several glanced indifferently at them, but for
Tarzan the Untamed |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: The inventor, though disappointed, was by no means cast down. He
clung tenaciously to his pet scheme and to such effect that in
1896 a German Engineering Society advanced him some funds to
continue his researches. This support sufficed to keep things
going for another two years, during which time a full-sized
vessel was built. The grand idea began to crystallise rapidly,
with the result that when a public company was formed in 1898,
sufficient funds were rendered available to enable the first
craft to be constructed. It aroused considerable attention, as
well it might, seeing that it eclipsed anything which had
previously been attempted in connection with dirigibles. It was
|
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 The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: station, a town seven miles away from his house, and seems to
have remarked nothing extraordinary about the child except that
she was reticent as to her former life and her adopted father.
She was, however, of a very different type from the inhabitants
of the village; her skin was a pale, clear olive, and her
features were strongly marked, and of a somewhat foreign
character. She appears to have settled down easily enough into
farmhouse life, and became a favourite with the children, who
sometimes went with her on her rambles in the forest, for this
was her amusement. Mr. R. states that he has known her to go
out by herself directly after their early breakfast, and not
The Great God Pan |
