| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: father carrying him swiftly over the soft carpet of fallen
leaves and rank grass.
Thuria's brilliant light flooded the plain before the
walled city of Lothar as Carthoris broke from the wood
opposite the great gate that had given the fugitives egress
from the city earlier in the day.
At first he saw no indication that there was another
than himself anywhere about. The plain was deserted.
No myriad bowmen camped now beneath the overhanging
verdure of the giant trees. No gory heaps of tortured
dead defaced the beauty of the scarlet sward.
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: which has I fear already proved but too detrimental to his health
and fortune--that she would now become Mistress of those Jewels
which once adorned our Mother, and which Sir George had always
promised us--that if they did not come into Perthshire I should
not be able to gratify my curiosity of beholding my Mother-in-law
and that if they did, Matilda would no longer sit at the head of
her Father's table--. These my dear Charlotte were the
melancholy reflections which crowded into my imagination after
perusing Susan's letter to you, and which instantly occurred to
Matilda when she had perused it likewise. The same ideas, the
same fears, immediately occupied her Mind, and I know not which
Love and Friendship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: just plumb wore out, and I declare I--I--why I could skin
you alive! You must be starving, poor things!--set down,
set down, everybody; don't lose no more time."
It was good to be there again behind all that noble
corn-pone and spareribs, and everything that you could
ever want in this world. Old Uncle Silas he peeled off
one of his bulliest old-time blessings, with as many
layers to it as an onion, and whilst the angels was
hauling in the slack of it I was trying to study up
what to say about what kept us so long. When our plates
was all loadened and we'd got a-going, she asked me, and I says:
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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 Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: to interfere in her favor.
"Johnny!" shouted one of the bully's companions. "Johnny, Tom
Howard is coming."
"Let him come!" replied Johnny, doggedly.
He did not half like the insinuation conveyed in the words of his
associates; for to tell him, under the circumstances, that Tommy
was coming, was as much as to say he was afraid of him. Now, as
we have said, Johnny Grippen was a "fighting character," and had
a reputation to maintain. He gloried in the name of being able to
whip any boy of his size in the neighborhood. He was always ready
to fight, and had, perhaps, given some hard knocks in his time;
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