| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: was away through the jungle toward the sound of the boom-
ing drum of the anthropoids leaving behind him an awakened
and terrified village of cringing blacks, who would forever
after connect that eerie cry with the disappearance of their
white prisoner and the death of their fellow-warrior.
Bertha Kircher, hurrying through the jungle along a well-
beaten game trail, thought only of putting as much distance as
possible between herself and the village before daylight could
permit pursuit of her. Whither she was going she did not
know, nor was it a matter of great moment since death must
be her lot sooner or later.
Tarzan the Untamed |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: that!" he said, clicking his thumb-nail against a front tooth. "Do you
dare to despise your father? have you no confidence in him? Don't you
know what a father is? If he is nothing for you, he is nothing at all.
Where is your gold?"
"Father, I love and respect you, in spite of your anger; but I humbly
ask you to remember that I am twenty-three years old. You have told me
often that I have attained my majority, and I do not forget it. I have
used my money as I chose to use it, and you may be sure that it was
put to a good use--"
"What use?"
"That is an inviolable secret," she answered. "Have you no secrets?"
Eugenie Grandet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: Duke, O Weg! I suppose you must not put in yours about the
warship; you will have to admit worse ones, however. - Ever yours,
R. L. S.
Letter: TO EDMUND GOSSE
[HOTEL BELVEDERE], DAVOS, DEC. 19, 1880.
This letter is a report of a long sederunt, also steterunt in small
committee at Davos Platz, Dec. 15, 1880.
Its results are unhesitatingly shot at your head.
MY DEAR WEG, - We both insist on the Duke of Wellington. Really it
cannot be left out. Symonds said you would cover yourself with
shame, and I add, your friends with confusion, if you leave it out.
|
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 The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: liquor never affected him. Yes, here she was, stranded with that
deep injustice of hers torturing her poor torn heart.
I didn't know what to do with her. I was as sorry for her
as anybody could be, but the campaign was over, the book was finished,
she was sidetracked, and there was no possible way of
crowding her in, anywhere. I could not leave her there,
of course; it would not do. After spreading her out so, and making
such a to-do over her affairs, it would be absolutely necessary
to account to the reader for her. I thought and thought and
studied and studied; but I arrived at nothing. I finally saw
plainly that there was really no way but one--I must simply give
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