| 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: will they kill you, though God knows before you have lived
long in this horrible place you will beg them to kill you."
"Who are they --" asked Bertha Kircher, "what kind of
people? They differ from any that I ever have seen. And tell
me, too, how you came here."
"It was long ago," said the old woman, rocking back and
forth on the couch. "It was long ago. Oh, how long it was!
I was only twenty then. Think of it, child! Look at me. I have
no mirror other than my bath, I cannot see what I look like
for my eyes are old, but with my fingers I can feel my old and
wrinkled face, my sunken eyes, and these flabby lips drawn
Tarzan the Untamed |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: Thy soul its hampering clay aside hath thrown,
And only freer wrestles with the ill.
"Thou livest in the life of all good things;
What words thou spak'st for Freedom shall not die;
Thou sleepest not, for now thy Love hath wings
To soar where hence thy hope could hardly fly.
"And often, from that other world, on this
Some gleams from great souls gone before may shine,
To shed on struggling hearts a clearer bliss,
And clothe the Right with lustre more divine.
"Farewell! good man, good angel now! this hand
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: children, the singers and the firemen walked on the sidewalks, while
in the middle of the street came first the custodian of the church
with his halberd, then the beadle with a large cross, the teacher in
charge of the boys and a sister escorting the little girls; three of
the smallest ones, with curly heads, threw rose leaves into the air;
the deacon with outstretched arms conducted the music; and two
incense-bearers turned with each step they took toward the Holy
Sacrament, which was carried by M. le Cure, attired in his handsome
chasuble and walking under a canopy of red velvet supported by four
men. A crowd of people followed, jammed between the walls of the
houses hung with white sheets; at last the procession arrived at the
A Simple Soul |
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 Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: And, after being forward cast, to be
Reined up, whereat it settles back again.
So seest thou not, how, though external force
Drive men before, and often make them move,
Onward against desire, and headlong snatched,
Yet is there something in these breasts of ours
Strong to combat, strong to withstand the same?-
Wherefore no less within the primal seeds
Thou must admit, besides all blows and weight,
Some other cause of motion, whence derives
This power in us inborn, of some free act.-
Of The Nature of Things |
