| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: Our only cause for inquietude was now the appearance of the
precipitous slope above us. We looked up toward one of those bare
strips called in that region, slides. Amid this loose earth, these
yielding stones, and these abrupt rocks there was no roadway.
Harry Horn said to his comrade, "It will not be easy."
"Perhaps impossible," responded Bruck.
Their comments caused me secret uneasiness. If I returned without
even having scaled the mountain, my mission would be a complete
failure, without speaking of the torture to my curiosity. And when I
stood again before Mr. Ward, shamed and confused, I should cut but a
sorry figure.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: take a drug or alter your regimen and it disturbs your thoughts,
you may take an idea and it disturbs your health. It is easy
enough to say, as some do, that all ideas have a physical
substratum; it is almost as easy to say with the Christian
Scientist that all bodily states are amenable to our ideas. The
truth doesn't, I think, follow the border between those opposite
opinions very exactly on either side. I can't, for instance, tell
you to go home and pray against these uncertainties and despairs,
because it is just these uncertainties and despairs that rob you
of the power of efficient prayer."
He did not seem to expect anything from the bishop.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: "But we shall be stifled."
"We shall, not be stifled at all. The gallery is widening, and if it
becomes necessary, we shall abandon the raft, and creep into a
crevice."
"But the water - the rising water?"
"There is no more water, Axel; only a lava paste, which is bearing us
up on its surface to the top of the crater."
The liquid column had indeed disappeared, to give place to dense and
still boiling eruptive matter of all kinds. The temperature was
becoming unbearable. A thermometer exposed to this atmosphere would
have marked 150°. The perspiration streamed from my body. But for the
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
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 Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: affairs, nobody voted for, nobody elected, nobody in the whole
universe with a voice in the government, nobody asked to take a
hand in its matters, and nobody ALLOWED to do it? Fine republic,
ain't it?"
"Well, yes - it IS a little different from the idea I had - but I
thought I might go around and get acquainted with the grandees,
anyway - not exactly splice the main-brace with them, you know, but
shake hands and pass the time of day."
"Could Tom, Dick and Harry call on the Cabinet of Russia and do
that? - on Prince Gortschakoff, for instance?"
"I reckon not, Sandy."
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