| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: with a swiftness as remarkable as that of his eye; sometimes even one
word in a sentence was enough to enable him to seize the gist of the
matter.
His memory was prodigious. He remembered with equal exactitude the
ideas he had derived from reading, and those which had occurred to him
in the course of meditation or conversation. Indeed, he had every form
of memory--for places, for names, for words, things, and faces. He not
only recalled any object at will, but he saw them in his mind,
situated, lighted, and colored as he had originally seen them. And
this power he could exert with equal effect with regard to the most
abstract efforts of the intellect. He could remember, as he said, not
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the men to build a big enough boat to take the whole party,
for they're sore now and sick of working like slaves all day long.
It ain't none of our business anyway to save the Englishman.
Let him look out for himself, says I." He paused for a moment,
and then eyeing the other to note the effect of his next words,
he continued, "But we might take the woman. It would be a shame
to leave a nice-lookin' piece like she is in such a
Gott-forsaken hole as this here island."
Schmidt looked up and grinned.
"So that's how she's blowin', is it?" he asked. "Why didn't
you say so in the first place? Wot's in it for me if I help you?"
The Beasts of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: and Pedro Nino and Bartolomeo Roldan push out together
and say they'll go, and others follow, seeing they'll have to
anyhow! So it went that day and the next and the next,
until now they've pressed all they need. So I say, we are
here, brother, flopping in the net!''
``When does he sail?''
Day after to-morrow, 'tis said. But we who don't live
in Palos have our orders to be there to-night. Aren't you
going too, mate?''
I answered that I hadn't thought of it, and immediately,
out of the whole, there rose and faced me, ``You have
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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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: flash.
'It would be a cowardly blow,' returned the Baronet, unmoved, 'for
it would make no change. I cannot draw upon a reigning sovereign.'
'And it is this man, to whom you dare not offer satisfaction, that
you choose to insult!' cried Otto.
'Pardon me,' said the traveller, 'you are unjust. It is because you
are a reigning sovereign that I cannot fight with you; and it is for
the same reason that I have a right to criticise your action and
your wife. You are in everything a public creature; you belong to
the public, body and bone. You have with you the law, the muskets
of the army, and the eyes of spies. We, on our side, have but one
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