| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: for a moment, nor thinking of sleep. Already the horses, divining the
approach of dawn, had ceased eating and lain down upon the grass; the
topmost leaves of the willows began to rustle softly, and little by
little the rippling rustle descended to their bases. She sat there
until daylight, unwearied, and wishing in her heart that the night
might prolong itself indefinitely. From the steppes came the ringing
neigh of the horses, and red streaks shone brightly in the sky. Bulba
suddenly awoke, and sprang to his feet. He remembered quite well what
he had ordered the night before. "Now, my men, you've slept enough!
'tis time, 'tis time! Water the horses! And where is the old woman?"
He generally called his wife so. "Be quick, old woman, get us
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: friend in England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among
my goods, and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the
wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and
though I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an
account of my works this year as the first, yet in general it may
be observed that I was very seldom idle, but having regularly
divided my time according to the several daily employments that
were before me, such as: first, my duty to God, and the reading the
Scriptures, which I constantly set apart some time for thrice every
day; secondly, the going abroad with my gun for food, which
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: were the muscles of a Titan, the force of a dozen mighty
catapults, and the owner of the tail was fully aware of the
possibilities which it contained. With a single flip of the tip
it sent poor Nobs sailing through the air a hundred feet above
the ground, straight back into the clump of acacias from which
the beast had leaped upon our kill--and then the grotesque thing
sank lifeless to the ground.
Olson and von Schoenvorts came up a minute later with their men;
then we all cautiously approached the still form upon the ground.
The creature was quite dead, and an examination resulted in
disclosing the fact that Whitely's bullet had pierced its heart,
The Land that Time Forgot |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: woman, she bears no resemblance at all to the damsel of his
imagination.'
At the time of these letters, the oldest son only was born to them.
In September of the next year, with the birth of the second,
Charles Frewen, there befell Fleeming a terrible alarm and what
proved to be a lifelong misfortune. Mrs. Jenkin was taken suddenly
and alarmingly ill; Fleeming ran a matter of two miles to fetch the
doctor, and, drenched with sweat as he was, returned with him at
once in an open gig. On their arrival at the house, Mrs. Jenkin
half unconsciously took and kept hold of her husband's hand. By
the doctor's orders, windows and doors were set open to create a
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