| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the morning they set out for the Emerald City, travelling over a road
of yellow brick that led straight to the jewel-studded gates.
Everywhere the people turned out to greet their beloved Ozma, and to
hail joyfully the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion,
who were popular favorites. Dorothy, too, remembered some of the
people, who had befriended her on the occasion of her first visit to
Oz, and they were well pleased to see the little Kansas girl again,
and showered her with compliments and good wishes.
At one place, where they stopped to refresh themselves, Ozma accepted
a bowl of milk from the hands of a pretty dairy-maid. Then she looked
at the girl more closely, and exclaimed:
Ozma of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Ile tell thee as we passe, but this I pray,
That thou consent to marrie vs to day
Fri. Holy S[aint]. Francis, what a change is heere?
Is Rosaline that thou didst Loue so deare
So soone forsaken? young mens Loue then lies
Not truely in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Iesu Maria, what a deale of brine
Hath washt thy sallow cheekes for Rosaline?
How much salt water throwne away in wast,
To season Loue that of it doth not tast.
The Sun not yet thy sighes, from heauen cleares,
Romeo and Juliet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: looked with dignity at the visitor.
She rose proudly, bowed to Gaston, and then stooped for the fallen
volume. If all her movements on his entrance had been caressingly
dainty and gracious, her every gesture now was no less severely
frigid. M. de Nueil rose to his feet, but he stood waiting. Mme. de
Beauseant flung another glance at him. "Well, why do you not go?" she
seemed to say.
There was such cutting irony in that glance that Gaston grew white as
if he were about to faint. Tears came into his eyes, but he would not
let them fall, and scorching shame and despair dried them. He looked
back at Madame de Beauseant, and a certain pride and consciousness of
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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 Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: him clearly more and more on his friend.
But she had now a soft smile. "Oh far--!"
It was oddly ironic. "Do you mean you're prepared to go further?"
She was frail and ancient and charming as she continued to look at
him, yet it was rather as if she had lost the thread. "Do you
consider that we went far?"
"Why I thought it the point you were just making--that we HAD
looked most things in the face."
"Including each other?" She still smiled. "But you're quite
right. We've had together great imaginations, often great fears;
but some of them have been unspoken."
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