| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: but it is hidden so that never a knave in Sherwood could find it."
"Thou dost surely jest," quoth Robin. "How could one hide so much
as two hundred pounds upon his person?"
"Now, as thou art so honest a fellow, and, withal, so much younger than I am,
I will tell thee that which I have told to no man in all the world before,
and thus thou mayst learn never again to do such a foolish thing as to trust
to beggar's garb to guard thee against Robin Hood. Seest thou these clogs
upon my feet?"
"Yea," quoth Robin, laughing, "truly, they are large enough for any
man to see, even were his sight as foggy as that of Peter Patter,
who never could see when it was time to go to work."
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: arm, looking like dirty towels across a rail, he had the horrid-
looking snakes. He did not seem to see Adam. No one was to be seen
at Mercy except a few workmen in the farmyard, so, after waiting on
the chance of seeing Mimi, Adam began to go slowly home.
Once more he was passed on the way. This time it was by Lady
Arabella, walking hurriedly and so furiously angry that she did not
recognise him, even to the extent of acknowledging his bow.
When Adam got back to Lesser Hill, he went to the coach-house where
the box with the mongoose was kept, and took it with him, intending
to finish at the Mound of Stone what he had begun the previous
morning with regard to the extermination. He found that the snakes
Lair of the White Worm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: rising and placing her dear hands upon my shoulders, and so
I took her in my arms and kissed her.
And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled
with the alarms of war; with death and destruction reaping
their terrible harvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princess
of Helium, true daughter of Mars, the God of War, promise
herself in marriage to John Carter, Gentleman of Virginia.
CHAPTER XXVI
THROUGH CARNAGE TO JOY
Sometime later Tars Tarkas and Kantos Kan returned to
report that Zodanga had been completely reduced. Her forces
|
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 A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: and the beginnings of controlled maturity; for women who cannot bear
to be separated from their pet dogs send their children to boarding
schools cheerfully. They may say and even believe that in allowing
their children to leave home they are sacrificing themselves for their
children's good; but there are very few pet dogs who would not be the
better for a month or two spent elsewhere than in a lady's lap or
roasting on a drawingroom hearthrug. Besides, to allege that children
are better continually away from home is to give up the whole popular
sentimental theory of the family; yet the dogs are kept and the
children are banished.
Child Fanciers
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