| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: for the shelter of the nearest wood. Almost instantaneously a
huge bulk swooped down upon me, and as I looked up, I realized
that there were flying reptiles even in this part of Caspak.
The creature dived for my right wing so quickly that nothing but
a sheer drop could have saved me. I was already close to the
ground, so that my maneuver was extremely dangerous; but I was
in a fair way of making it successfully when I saw that I was
too closely approaching a large tree. My effort to dodge the
tree and the pterodactyl at the same time resulted disastrously.
One wing touched an upper branch; the plane tipped and swung
around, and then, out of control, dashed into the branches of
The People That Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: to him with a wan smile and said, -
"I don't think I care to visit the head-hunters any more. It's
adventure, I know; but there is such a thing as having too much of
a good thing. Riding around the plantation will henceforth be good
enough for me, or perhaps salving another Martha; but the bushmen
of Guadalcanar need never worry for fear that I shall visit them
again. I shall have nightmares for months to come, I know I shall.
Ugh!--the horrid beasts!"
That night found them back in camp with Tudor, who, while improved,
would still have to be carried down on a stretcher. The swelling
of the Poonga-Poonga man's shoulder was going down slowly, but
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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 Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: doubt would come; and she told her not to be cast down, but taste her
cherries, and look at her flowers, which were finer than any in a
picture-book, each of which could tell a whole story. She then took Gerda by
the hand, led her into the little cottage, and locked the door.
The windows were very high up; the glass was red, blue, and green, and the
sunlight shone through quite wondrously in all sorts of colors. On the table
stood the most exquisite cherries, and Gerda ate as many as she chose, for she
had permission to do so. While she was eating, the old woman combed her hair
with a golden comb, and her hair curled and shone with a lovely golden color
around that sweet little face, which was so round and so like a rose.
"I have often longed for such a dear little girl," said the old woman. "Now
Fairy Tales |
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 In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: contempt for mother earth by spitting savagely every now and again, we
jolted home again, and the nearer we came to Mindelbau the more we loved it
and one another.
"We must have many excursions like this," said Herr Erchardt to me, "for
one surely gets to know a person in the simple surroundings of the open
air--one SHARES the same joys--one feels friendship. What is it your
Shakespeare says? One moment, I have it. The friends thou hast, and their
adoption tried--grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel!"
"But," said I, feeling very friendly towards him, "the bother about my soul
is that it refuses to grapple anybody at all--and I am sure that the dead
weight of a friend whose adoption it had tried would kill it immediately.
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