| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: mine own eyes."
But that very sterling independence that had brought Myles so
creditably through this adventure was certain to embroil him with
the rude, half-savage lads about him, some of whom, especially
among the bachelors, were his superiors as well in age as in
skill and training. As said before, the bachelors had enforced
from the younger boys a fagging sort of attendance on their
various personal needs, and it was upon this point that Myles
first came to grief. As it chanced, several days passed before
any demand was made upon him for service to the heads of the
squirehood, but when that demand was made, the bachelors were
Men of Iron |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: famished. I was."
"Eudora!"
"And they wanted to give me money, but I would not take it, and
they had been trying to find a laundress for their finer
linen--their old serving-woman was ill. They could find one for
the heavier things, but they are very particular, and I was sure
I could manage, and so I begged them to let me have the work, and
they did, and overpaid me, I fear. And I--I knew very well how
many spying eyes were about, and I thought of my proud father and
my proud mother and grandmother, and perhaps I was proud, too.
You know they talk about the Yates pride. It was not so much
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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 The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: accustomed to command. Something in my voice, I do not
know what, cowed the beasts as they sprang to attack me.
"Instead of tearing me to pieces, as Sator Throg had
desired, they fawned at my feet. So greatly were Sator Throg
and his friends amused by the sight that they kept me to train
and handle the terrible creatures. I know them all by name.
There are many of them wandering through these lower regions.
They are the scavengers. Many prisoners die here in their chains.
The banths solve the problem of sanitation, at least in this respect.
"In the gardens and temples above they are kept in pits.
The therns fear them. It is because of the banths that they
The Gods of Mars |
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 Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: the relative size, only each State and realm and island is a good
many billion times bigger here than it is below. There goes
another blast."
"What is that one for?"
"That is only another fort answering the first one. They each fire
eleven hundred and one thunder blasts at a single dash - it is the
usual salute for an eleventh-hour guest; a hundred for each hour
and an extra one for the guest's sex; if it was a woman we would
know it by their leaving off the extra gun."
"How do we know there's eleven hundred and one, Sandy, when they
all go off at once? - and yet we certainly do know."
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