| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: side shall they be dwarfed and pale and scant."
Instantly I looked above, for clouds are so uncommon
in the skies of Pellucidar--they are practically unknown
except above the mightiest mountain ranges--that it
had given me something of a start to discover the sun
obliterated. But I was not long in coming to a realization
of the cause of the shadow.
Above me hung another world. I could see its moun-
tains and valleys, oceans, lakes, and rivers, its broad,
grassy plains and dense forests. But too great was the
distance and too deep the shadow of its under side for
Pellucidar |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: her presence had brought happiness to him whose name was on every lip,
and whose talent lent immortality to transient scenes. She was loved!
It was impossible to doubt it. When she no longer saw the artist,
these simple words still echoed in her ear, "You see how love has
inspired me!" And the throbs of her heart, as they grew deeper, seemed
a pain, her heated blood revealed so many unknown forces in her being.
She affected a severe headache to avoid replying to her cousin's
questions concerning the pictures; but on their return Madame Roguin
could not forbear from speaking to Madame Guillaume of the fame that
had fallen on the house of the Cat and Racket, and Augustine quaked in
every limb as she heard her mother say that she should go to the Salon
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: That kind of thing belongeth to mine art. Thee thyself, I wanted to put to
the proof when I gave this performance. And verily, thou hast well
detected me!
But thou thyself--hast given me no small proof of thyself: thou art HARD,
thou wise Zarathustra! Hard strikest thou with thy 'truths,' thy cudgel
forceth from me--THIS truth!"
--"Flatter not," answered Zarathustra, still excited and frowning, "thou
stage-player from the heart! Thou art false: why speakest thou--of truth!
Thou peacock of peacocks, thou sea of vanity; WHAT didst thou represent
before me, thou evil magician; WHOM was I meant to believe in when thou
wailedst in such wise?"
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
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 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: smoke together in the glass, and when the ebullition had subsided,
with a strong glow of courage, drank off the potion.
The most racking pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones,
deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded
at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly
to subside, and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness.
There was something strange in my sensations, something
indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. I
felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of
a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images
running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
