| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: little lakes, and Sabor, with her ferocious cousins to keep
one ever on the alert and give zest to every instant that one
spent upon the ground.
Often they hunted him, and more often he hunted them,
but though they never quite reached him with those cruel,
sharp claws of theirs, yet there were times when one could
scarce have passed a thick leaf between their talons and his
smooth hide.
Quick was Sabor, the lioness, and quick were Numa and
Sheeta, but Tarzan of the Apes was lightning.
With Tantor, the elephant, he made friends. How? Ask not.
Tarzan of the Apes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: is; but I tell you I haven't a penny."
"Very good," replied Bixiou; "then we won't say anything more about
it. I had arranged for this evening, at Carabine's, the thing you most
wanted--you know?"
Vauvinet winked an eye at Bixiou; the wink that two jockeys give each
other when they want to say: "Don't try trickery."
"Don't you remember catching me round the waist as if I were a pretty
woman," said Bixiou, "and coaxing me with look and speech, and saying,
'I'll do anything for you if you'll only get me shares at par in that
railroad du Tillet and Nucingen have made an offer for?' Well, old
fellow, du Tillet and Nucingen are coming to Carabine's to-night,
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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 When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: stonebuilt village, in the days when there were hedgerows,
and villages, and inns, and all the countryside cut up
into little pieces, little fields. Have you never heard
of those days? And it is I--I who speak to you--
who awakened again these four days since."
"Four days since!--the Sleeper! But they've got
the Sleeper. They have him and they won't let him
go. Nonsense! You've been talking sensibly enough
up to now. I can see it as though I was there. There
will be Lincoln like a keeper just behind him; they
won't let him go about alone. Trust them. You're a
When the Sleeper Wakes |
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 Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: of its code.
Now he saw the matter in a new light, and his part
in it seemed singularly diminished. It was, in fact, that
which, with a secret fatuity, he had watched Mrs.
Thorley Rushworth play toward a fond and unperceiving
husband: a smiling, bantering, humouring, watchful
and incessant lie. A lie by day, a lie by night, a lie in
every touch and every look; a lie in every caress and
every quarrel; a lie in every word and in every silence.
It was easier, and less dastardly on the whole, for a
wife to play such a part toward her husband. A woman's
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