| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: them live?"
"They do not belong here," returned the Prince. "They have no right
to be inside the earth at all."
"We didn't ask to come down here; we fell," said Dorothy.
"That is no excuse," declared the Prince, coldly.
The children looked at each other in perplexity, and the Wizard
sighed. Eureka rubbed her paw on her face and said in her soft,
purring voice:
"He won't need to destroy ME, for if I don't get something to eat
pretty soon I shall starve to death, and so save him the trouble."
"If he planted you, he might grow some cat-tails," suggested the Wizard.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: that her old father caused her, as matter of precaution, to be
accompanied to and from the studio. The only defect of this truly
poetic creature came from the very power of a beauty so fully
developed; she looked a woman. Marriage she had refused out of love to
her father and mother, feeling herself necessary to the comfort of
their old age. Her taste for painting took the place of the passions
and interests which usually absorb her sex.
"You are very silent to-day, mesdemoiselles," she said, after
advancing a little way among her companions. "Good-morning, my little
Laure," she added, in a soft, caressing voice, approaching the young
girl who was painting apart from the rest. "That head is strong,--the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: the old - so old - the Armada treasure-ship, Santma Trinid - the
grave in the heather - strangers there. Chapter IV. 'The Gale' -
the doomed ship - the storm - the drunken madman on the head -
cries in the night. Chapter V. 'A Man out of the Sea.' But I must
not breathe to you my plot. It is, I fancy, my first real shoot at
a story; an odd thing, sir, but, I believe, my own, though there is
a little of Scott's PIRATE in it, as how should there not? He had
the root of romance in such places. Aros is Earraid, where I lived
lang syne; the Ross of Grisapol is the Ross of Mull; Ben Ryan, Ben
More. I have written to the middle of Chapter IV. Like enough,
when it is finished I shall discard all chapterings; for the thing
|
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 An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: silk bonnet with knots of violet ribbon round it, but he looked at his
wife as if to say, "Did you think I should leave such a thing as that
lying about in your drawer?" and then vanished.
The old lady kept so still and silent that the shopkeeper's wife was
surprised. She went back to her, and on a nearer view a sudden impulse
of pity, blended perhaps with curiosity, got the better of her. The
old lady's face was naturally pale; she looked as though she secretly
practised austerities; but it was easy to see that she was paler than
usual from recent agitation of some kind. Her head-dress was so
arranged as to almost hide hair that was white, no doubt with age, for
there was not a trace of powder on the collar of her dress. The
|
