| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: American wages and working conditions, I have to laugh. For any
man who has ever had a taste of peonage, to say nothing of
slavery, knows that the wage system is not real slavery; it's not
the genuine, lash-driven, bloodhound-hunted, swamp-sick African
slavery. None is genuine without Simon Legree and the Louisiana
bloodhounds. The silk-socked wage slave, toiling eight hours for
six dollars, is not the genuine old New Orleans molasses slave.
He may carry a band and give a daily street parade, but if he's
not accompanied by Simon Legree and the bloodhounds, he is not a
genuine Uncle Tom, his slavery is less than skin deep. You can't
fool me. I know what real slavery is. I know as much about
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: all wanted to get money out of you: or, if they were travellers, they
wanted to get enjoyment, perforce, like squeezing blood out of a stone.
Poor mountains! poor landscape! it all had to be squeezed and squeezed
and squeezed again, to provide a thrill, to provide enjoyment. What did
people mean, with their simply determined enjoying of themselves?
No! said Connie to herself I'd rather be at Wragby, where I can go
about and be still, and not stare at anything or do any performing of
any sort. This tourist performance of enjoying oneself is too
hopelessly humiliating: it's such a failure.
She wanted to go back to Wragby, even to Clifford, even to poor
crippled Clifford. He wasn't such a fool as this swarming holidaying
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: himself be handcuffed and jailed, to run from a drunken,
bragging cowboy, or be shot in cold blood by some border brute
who merely wanted to add another notch to his gun--these things
were impossible for Duane because there was in him the temper
to fight. In that hour he yielded only to fate and the spirit
inborn in him. Hereafter this gun must be a living part of him.
Right then and there he returned to a practice he had long
discontinued--the draw. It was now a stern, bitter, deadly
business with him. He did not need to fire the gun, for
accuracy was a gift and had become assured. Swiftness on the
draw, however, could be improved, and he set himself to acquire
The Lone Star Ranger |
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 Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: resulted in so many deaths that it was found difficult to maintain
the guard at its full strength while this custom prevailed.
Salensus Oll had, therefore, set apart these quarters for aspirants,
and here they were securely locked against the danger of attack
by members of the guard.
This unwelcome information put a sudden check to all our well-
laid plans, for it meant that we should virtually be prisoners in
the palace of Salensus Oll until the time that he should see fit
to give us the final examination for efficiency.
The Warlord of Mars |
