| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: that's not a full meal at all," grumbled the young one.
"And, before that, I had waited sixty-two years to be
fed; so it's no wonder I'm hungry."
"How old are you now?" asked Woot, forgetting his own
dangerous position in his interest in the conversation.
"Why, I'm -- I'm -- How old am I, Father?" asked the
little Dragon.
"Goodness gracious! what a child to ask questions. Do
you want to keep me thinking all the time? Don't you
know that thinking is very bad for Dragons?" returned
the big one, impatiently.
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: (a) her local irritation, (b) for which her father had treated
her, (c) prior crowded housing conditions with her father and
brother, (d) her lack of mother's control, (e) early and intimate
acquaintance with atrocious sex knowledge and sex habits, and (f)
recently becoming the center of interest in a group of friends
made through her statement of the vileness of family conditions.
We were requested to study this case by the judge of the court in
which the father and brother of Bessie M. were to be tried for
the crime of incest with her. At a preliminary hearing the judge
had felt that the remarkable statements of the little girl
savored of untruth, and that the character sustained by the
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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 Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: time-wasting intrusions. I found the little man alone in the
inner office pretending to work, but really brooding. He was
looking yellow and deflated.
"Lord!" he said at the sight of me. "You're lean, George. It
makes that scar of yours show up."
We regarded each other gravely for a time.
"Quap," I said, "is at the bottom of the Atlantic. There's some
bills--We've got to pay the men."
"Seen the papers?"
"Read 'em all in the train."
"At bay," he said. "I been at bay for a week.... Yelping round
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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 Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: Charlie, the janitor, was doing something to the windows now, with
a rag, and a pail of water.
"Get it dry?" he called out, sociably.
"Yes, thank you," answered Mary Louise, and turned to enter
her own little apartment. Then, hesitatingly, she came back to
Charlie's window.
"There--there was a man up there--a very tall, very thin, very
rude, very--that is, rather nice youngish oldish man, in slippers,
and no collar. I wonder----"
"Oh, him!" snorted Charlie. "He don't show himself onct in a
blue moon. None of the other tenants knows he's up there. Has the
Buttered Side Down |
