| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: aught than well-calculated design.
And now the dropping of the steel gate to pen me effectually
between fire and flood seemed to indicate that invisible
eyes were upon us at every moment. What chance had I,
then, to rescue Dejah Thoris were I to be compelled to fight
foes who never showed themselves. A thousand times I berated
myself for being drawn into such a trap as I might
have known these pits easily could be. Now I saw that it
would have been much better to have kept our force intact
and made a concerted attack upon the temple from the valley
side, trusting to chance and our great fighting ability to
 The Gods of Mars |
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 Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: friend to consent to the operation. To all the poor German's
despairing entreaties Pons only replied by a shake of the head and
occasional impatient movements; till, after awhile, he summoned up all
his fast-failing strength to say, with a heartrending look:
"Do let me die in peace!"
Schmucke almost died of sorrow, but he took Pons' hand and softly
kissed it, and held it between his own, as if trying a second time to
give his own vitality to his friend.
Just at this moment the bell rang, and Dr. Poulain, going to the door,
admitted the Abbe Duplanty.
"Our poor patient is struggling in the grasp of death," he said. "All
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