| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: them with violence to make them descend. The Carthaginians pushed
them, and at daybreak they projected into the plain like the steps of
an immense ruined staircase.
The Barbarians were still unable to climb them. Ladders were held out
for their assistance; all rushed upon them. The discharge of a
catapult drove the crowd back; only the Ten were taken away.
They walked amid the Clinabarians, leaning their hands on the horses'
croups for support.
Now that their first joy was over they began to harbour anxieties.
Hamilcar's demands would be cruel. But Spendius reassured them.
"I will speak!" And he boasted that he knew excellent things to say
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: were gathered in the Brutus Tower--"see ye not that they grow as
bad as ever? An we put not a stop to this overmastery now, it
will never stop."
"Best let it be, Myles," said Wilkes. "They will kill thee an
thou cease not troubling them. Thou hast bred mischief enow for
thyself already."
"No matter for that," said Myles; "it is not to be borne that
they order others of us about as they do. I mean to speak to them
to-night, and tell them it shall not be."
He was as good as his word. That night, as the youngsters were
shouting and romping and skylarking, as they always did before
Men of Iron |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: please you sir."
"I am pointed for that place myself. Is there
anything stirring in the monkery, more than com-
mon?"
"By the mass ye may not question it!.... Give him
good feed, boy, and stint it not, an thou valuest thy
crown; so get ye lightly to the stable and do even as I
bid...... Sir, it is parlous news I bring, and -- be
these pilgrims? Then ye may not do better, good
folk, than gather and hear the tale I have to tell, sith it
concerneth you, forasmuch as ye go to find that ye
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
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 Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: his spring I fired. I did not dare to wait, for I saw that he would
clear the whole space and land right upon me. Without a sight, almost
without aim, I fired, as one would fire a snap shot at a snipe. The
bullet told, for I distinctly heard its thud above the rushing sound
caused by the passage of the lion through the air. Next second I was
swept to the ground (luckily I fell into a low, creeper-clad bush, which
broke the shock), and the lion was on the top of me, and the next those
great white teeth of his had met in my thigh--I heard them grate against
the bone. I yelled out in agony, for I did not feel in the least
benumbed and happy, like Dr. Livingstone--whom, by the way, I knew very
well--and gave myself up for dead. But suddenly, at that moment, the
Long Odds |
