| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: intruding upon you uninvited, but we are traveling on important
business and find it necessary to visit your city. Will you kindly
tell us by what name your city is called?"
They looked at one another uncertainly, each expecting some other to
answer. Finally, a short one whose heart-shaped body was very broad
replied, "We have no occasion to call our city anything. It is where
we live, that is all."
"But by what name do others call your city?"asked the Wizard.
"We know of no others except yourselves," said the man. And then he
inquired, "Were you born with those queer forms you have, or has some
cruel magician transformed you to them from your natural shapes?"
The Lost Princess of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: Nadia was near him, calm also, but secretly uneasy at
a scene which it would have been better to avoid.
"Enough!" said the traveler. Then, going up to the
postmaster, "Let the horses be put into my berlin," he ex-
claimed with a threatening gesture.
The postmaster, much embarrassed, did not know whom
to obey, and looked at Michael, who evidently had the right
to resist the unjust demands of the traveler.
Michael hesitated an instant. He did not wish to make
use of his podorojna, which would have drawn attention to
him, and he was most unwilling also, by giving up his
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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 Theaetetus by Plato: of Protagoras will not deny that in determining what is or is not expedient
for the community one state is wiser and one counsellor better than
another--they will scarcely venture to maintain, that what a city enacts in
the belief that it is expedient will always be really expedient. But in
the other case, I mean when they speak of justice and injustice, piety and
impiety, they are confident that in nature these have no existence or
essence of their own--the truth is that which is agreed on at the time of
the agreement, and as long as the agreement lasts; and this is the
philosophy of many who do not altogether go along with Protagoras. Here
arises a new question, Theodorus, which threatens to be more serious than
the last.
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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 The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: In our empty rooms
D A 410
DAYADHVAM: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours
Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus
D A
DAMYATA: The boat responded
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar
The Waste Land |
