| 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: round, fat piglets with her paw; but the pigs never minded, and
enjoyed the sport very greatly.
Suddenly they looked up to find the room filled with the silent,
solemn-eyed Mangaboos. Each of the vegetable folks bore a branch
covered with sharp thorns, which was thrust defiantly toward the
horse, the kitten and the piglets.
"Here--stop this foolishness!" Jim roared, angrily; but after being
pricked once or twice he got upon his four legs and kept out of the
way of the thorns.
The Mangaboos surrounded them in solid ranks, but left an opening to
the doorway of the hall; so the animals slowly retreated until they
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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: transcendental power. No one could well deny that conclusion, granting
the premiss. But of what power? What had he to show as the result of
his intimate communion with an unseen Being? The Christian Schools, who
held that the spiritual is the moral, answered accordingly. He must
show righteousness, and love, and peace in a Holy Spirit. That is the
likeness of God. In proportion as a man has them, he is partaker of a
Divine nature. He can rise no higher, and he needs no more. Platonists
had said--No, that is only virtue; and virtue is the means, not the end.
We want proof of having something above that; something more than any
man of the herd, any Christian slave, can perform; something above
nature; portents and wonders. So they set to work to perform wonders;
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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 The Odyssey by Homer: travail. Nay pity me, O king; for I avow myself thy
suppliant.'
So spake he, and the god straightway stayed his stream and
withheld his waves, and made the water smooth before him,
and brought him safely to the mouths of the river. And his
knees bowed and his stout hands fell, for his heart was
broken by the brine. And his flesh was all swollen and a
great stream of sea water gushed up through his mouth and
nostrils. So he lay without breath or speech, swooning,
such terrible weariness came upon him. But when now his
breath returned and his spirit came to him again, he loosed
The Odyssey |
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 Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: Queen Elizabeth's reign; and the events took place in Liddesdale,
a hilly and pastoral district of Roxburghshire, which, on a part
of its boundary, is divided from England only by a small river.
During the good old times of RUGGING AND RIVING--that is, tugging
and tearing--under which term the disorderly doings of the
warlike age are affectionately remembered, this valley was
principally cultivated by the sept or clan of the Armstrongs.
The chief of this warlike race was the Laird of Mangerton. At
the period of which I speak, the estate of Mangerton, with the
power and dignity of chief, was possessed by John Armstrong, a
man of great size, strength, and courage. While his father was
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