| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: another voice that Barney recognized at once as belonging
to Prince Peter of Blentz, the one time regent of Lutha.
"It is not for myself," continued Count Zellerndorf, "that I
crave your gratitude, but for my emperor. You may do
much to win his undying gratitude, while for yourselves
you may win to almost any height with the friendship of
Austria behind you. I am sure that should any accident,
which God forfend, deprive Lutha of her king, none would
make a more welcome successor in the eyes of Austria than
our good friend Peter."
Barney could almost see the smile of satisfaction upon the
The Mad King |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Moaning and calling out of other lands,
Had left the ravaged woodland yet once more
To peace; and what should not have been had been,
For Merlin, overtalked and overworn,
Had yielded, told her all the charm, and slept.
Then, in one moment, she put forth the charm
Of woven paces and of waving hands,
And in the hollow oak he lay as dead,
And lost to life and use and name and fame.
Then crying 'I have made his glory mine,'
And shrieking out 'O fool!' the harlot leapt
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: "Huck Finn, do you mean to tell me you don't
know what a crusade is?"
"No," says I, "I don't. And I don't care to,
nuther. I've lived till now and done without it, and
had my health, too. But as soon as you tell me, I'll
know, and that's soon enough. I don't see any use in
finding out things and clogging up my head with them
when I mayn't ever have any occasion to use 'em.
There was Lance Williams, he learned how to talk
Choctaw here till one come and dug his grave for him.
Now, then, what's a crusade? But I can tell you one
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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 From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: go no farther upwards; and when the water ebbs again, they are left
behind, not being able to pass the points of the grating, as above,
outwards; which, like a mouse-trap, keeps them in, so that they are
left at the bottom with about a foot or a foot and a half of water.
We were carried hither at low water, where we saw about fifty or
sixty small salmon, about seventeen to twenty inches long, which
the country people call salmon-peal; and to catch these the person
who went with us, who was our landlord at a great inn next the
bridge, put in a net on a hoop at the end of a pole, the pole going
cross the hoop (which we call in this country a shove-net). The
net being fixed at one end of the place, they put in a dog (who was
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