| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: everything was become beautiful. The wind and the martens broke it
up into innumerable dimples; and the reflection of the sky was
scattered over all the surface in crumbs of smiling blue.
A creek ran up to meet the path, and close under the bank the
ferryman's hut lay snugly. It was of wattle and clay, and the
grass grew green upon the roof.
Dick went to the door and opened it. Within, upon a foul old
russet cloak, the ferryman lay stretched and shivering; a great
hulk of a man, but lean and shaken by the country fever.
"Hey, Master Shelton," he said, "be ye for the ferry? Ill times,
ill times! Look to yourself. There is a fellowship abroad. Ye
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: that it was a moving thing--against the red water of the sea. It
was a round thing, the size of a football perhaps, or, it may be,
bigger, and tentacles trailed down from it; it seemed black
against the weltering blood-red water, and it was hopping
fitfully about. Then I felt I was fainting. But a terrible
dread of lying helpless in that remote and awful twilight
sustained me while I clambered upon the saddle.
XII
`So I came back. For a long time I must have been insensible
upon the machine. The blinking succession of the days and nights
was resumed, the sun got golden again, the sky blue. I breathed
The Time Machine |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: is a kind of self-oiler. If you're used to it, the minute you
stop you begin to get rusty, and your hinges creak and you clog
up. And the next thing you know, you break down. Work that you
like to do is a blessing. It keeps you young. When my mother
was my age, she was crippled with rheumatism, and all gnarled up,
and quavery, and all she had to look forward to was death. Now
me--every time the styles in skirts change I get a new hold on
life. And on a day when I can make a short, fat woman look like
a tall, thin woman, just by sitting here on my knees with a
handful of pins, and giving her the line she needs, I go home
feeling like I'd just been born."
Emma McChesney & Co. |
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 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: {2 long paragraphs seem to be missing from this omnibus here}
Apart, in separate compartments, were spread out chaplets of pearls
of the greatest beauty, which reflected the electric light in little
sparks of fire; pink pearls, torn from the pinna-marina of the Red Sea;
green pearls, yellow, blue, and black pearls, the curious productions
of the divers molluscs of every ocean, and certain mussels of the water
courses of the North; lastly, several specimens of inestimable value.
Some of these pearls were larger than a pigeon's egg, and were worth millions.
{this para has been altered the last sentence reworded}
Therefore, to estimate the value of this collection was simply impossible.
Captain Nemo must have expended millions in the acquirement of these
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
