| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: amid huge throngs of Mahars, Sagoths, and heavily
guarded slaves, I was led, or, rather, pushed and shoved
roughly, along in the same direction that the mob
moved. I had seen such a concourse of people once be-
fore in the buried city of Phutra; I guessed, and rightly,
that we were bound for the great arena where slaves
who are condemned to death meet their end.
Into the vast amphitheater they took me, stationing
me at the extreme end of the arena. The queen came,
with her slimy, sickening retinue. The seats were filled.
The show was about to commence.
Pellucidar |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: never married by the man who----"
"Bosh!" interrupted Blondet, "one reason for loving is the fact that
one has loved. His motive? Here it is. General Rule: Do not marry as a
sergeant when some day you may be Duke of Dantzig and Marshal of
France. Now, see what a match du Tillet has made since then. He
married one of the Comte de Granville's daughters, into one of the
oldest families in the French magistracy."
"Desroches' mother had a friend, a druggist's wife," continued Bixiou.
"Said druggist had retired with a fat fortune. These druggist folk
have absurdly crude notions; by way of giving his daughter a good
education, he had sent her to a boarding-school! Well, Matifat meant
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: used elsewhere, and so will not repeat here.[4]
[4] See especially Jackson Himes in The Blazed Trail;
and TheRawhide.
This vividness manifests itself quite as often in the
selection of the apt word as in the construction of
elaborate phrases with a half-humorous intention. A
cowboy once told me of the arrival of a tramp by
saying, "He SIFTED into camp." Could any verb be
more expressive? Does not it convey exactly the
lazy, careless, out-at-heels shuffling gait of the hobo?
Another in the course of description told of a saloon
|
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 Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: Oh, ye only is it, ye dark, nightly ones, that extract warmth from the
shining ones! Oh, ye only drink milk and refreshment from the light's
udders!
Ah, there is ice around me; my hand burneth with the iciness! Ah, there is
thirst in me; it panteth after your thirst!
'Tis night: alas, that I have to be light! And thirst for the nightly!
And lonesomeness!
'Tis night: now doth my longing break forth in me as a fountain,--for
speech do I long.
'Tis night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also
is a gushing fountain.
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
