| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: More than once before had glittering gold filtered through
his fingers from a similar source. It was easy money and The
Sheik had none too much easy money since the Big Bwana had
so circumscribed the limits of his ancient domain that he dared
not even steal ivory from natives within two hundred miles of
the Big Bwana's douar. And when at last the woman had walked
into the trap he had set for her and he had recognized her as the
same little girl he had brutalized and mal-treated years before
his gratification had been huge. Now he lost no time in
establishing the old relations of father and daughter that had
existed between them in the past. At the first opportunity he
The Son of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: choice, therefore, of letting him live to prove your treason,
or letting him die and becoming chancellor of Lutha."
Slowly Coblich turned toward the door. "You are right,"
he said, "but may God have mercy on my soul. I never
thought that I should have to do it with my own hands."
So saying he left the room and a moment later Peter of
Blentz smiled as he heard the pounding of a horse's hoofs
upon the pavement without.
Then the Regent entered the room he had recently quitted
and spoke to the nobles of Lutha who were gathered there.
"Coblich has found the body of the murdered king," he
The Mad King |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they
successively appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all the
Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the
respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the
precedence to Athens.
In the days of old, the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by
allotment (Cp. Polit.) There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly
suppose that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to
have, or, knowing this, that they would seek to procure for themselves by
contention that which more properly belonged to others. They all of them
by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own
|
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 A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: Cape of Gardafui, who, by the assistance of the forces sent him from
Moca by the Arabs and Turks, conquered almost all Abyssinia, and
founded the kingdom of Adel. He was called Mahomet Gragne, or the
Lame. When he had ravaged Aethiopia fourteen years, and was master
of the greatest part of it, the Emperor David sent to implore
succour of the King of Portugal, with a promise that when those
dominions were recovered which had been taken from him, he would
entirely submit himself to the Pope, and resign the third part of
his territories to the Portuguese. After many delays, occasioned by
the great distance between Portugal and Abyssinia, and some
unsuccessful attempts, King John the Third, having made Don Stephen
|
