| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: -- great, shaggy fellows who went upon their hind feet with
only slight assistance from the knuckles of their hands. The
moonlight glanced from their glossy coats, the numerous gray-
tipped hairs imparting a sheen that made the hideous creatures
almost magnificent in their appearance.
The girl had watched them but a minute or two when the
little band was joined by others, coming singly and in groups
until there were fully fifty of the great brutes gathered there
in the moonlight. Among them were young apes and several
little ones clinging tightly to their mothers' shaggy shoulders.
Presently the group parted to form a circle about what ap-
Tarzan the Untamed |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: Carrell was in identically the same position as the orator you speak
of. That gloomy young man, of a bitter spirit, had a whole government
in his head; the man of whom you speak had no idea beyond mounting on
the crupper of every event. Of the two, Carrel was the better man.
Well, one becomes a minister, Carrel remained a journalist; the
incomplete but craftier man is living; Carrel is dead.
"I may point out that your man has for fifteen years been making his
way, and is but making it still. He may yet be caught and crushed
between two cars full of intrigues on the highroad to power. He has no
house; he has not the favor of the palace like Metternich; nor, like
Villele, the protection of a compact majority.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: process."
He rose to carry the candles into the adjoining room, and before
sitting down again he drank a full glass of Giro, a Sardinian wine, as
full of fire as the old wines of Tokay can inspire.
"Now, you see," said Gambara, "this music is not written for
misbelievers, nor for those who know not love. If you have never
suffered from the virulent attacks of an evil spirit who shifts your
object just as you are taking aim, who puts a fatal end to your
highest hopes,--in one word, if you have never felt the devil's tail
whisking over the world, the opera of /Robert le Diable/ must be to
you, what the Apocalypse is to those who believe that all things will
Gambara |
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 Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: sense of over-matched littleness, for no reward that could be
adequate, but for the mere winning of a longitude. Yet a certain
longitude, once won, cannot be disputed. The sun and the stars
and the shape of your earth are the witnesses of your gain;
whereas a handful of pages, no matter how much you have made them
your own, are at best but an obscure and questionable spoil.
Here they are. "Failure"--"Astonishing": take your choice; or
perhaps both, or neither--a mere rustle and flutter of pieces of
paper settling down in the night, and undistinguishable, like the
snowflakes of a great drift destined to melt away in the
sunshine.
Some Reminiscences |
