| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Both Dorothy and I were wondering how we should pass
the day when we happened to think we'd not been to your
Quadling Country for weeks, so we took the Sawhorse and
rode straight here."
"And we came so fast," added Dorothy, "that our hair
is blown all fuzzy, for the Sawhorse makes a wind of
his own. Usually it's a day's journey from the Em'rald
City, but I don't s'pose we were two hours on the way."
"You are most welcome," said Glinda the Sorceress,
and led them through the court to her magnificent
reception hall. Ozma took the arm of her hostess, but
Glinda of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: own nest"; a curious chapter thereupon, with many modern examples,
might nevertheless be written. This I will leave, and will now
only place on record some of the cruelties perpetrated upon books
by the ignorance or carelessness of binders.
Like men, books have a soul and body. With the soul, or literary portion,
we have nothing to do at present; the body, which is the outer
frame or covering, and without which the inner would be unusable,
is the special work of the binder. He, so to speak, begets it;
he determines its form and adornment, he doctors it in disease
and decay, and, not unseldom, dissects it after death.
Here, too, as through all Nature, we find the good and bad running
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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 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: even the steel-clad ass that HADN'T any board would
himself begin to look ridiculous because he was out of
the fashion.
Secondly, these missionaries would gradually, and
without creating suspicion or exciting alarm, introduce
a rudimentary cleanliness among the nobility, and from
them it would work down to the people, if the priests
could be kept quiet. This would undermine the
Church. I mean would be a step toward that. Next,
education -- next, freedom -- and then she would begin
to crumble. It being my conviction that any Estab-
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
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 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: wrong side of the street, because I take it for granted that's the crime
you're hinting at!"
There was a great deal of laughter. Mrs. Jones asserted, "Mr. Frink is simply
too killing! You'd think he was so innocent!"
Babbitt clamored, "How did you guess it, Chum? Well, you-all just wait a
moment while I go out and get the--keys to your cars!" Through a froth of
merriment he brought the shining promise, the mighty tray of glasses with the
cloudy yellow cocktails in the glass pitcher in the center. The men babbled,
"Oh, gosh, have a look!" and "This gets me right where I live!" and "Let me at
it!" But Chum Frink, a traveled man and not unused to woes, was stricken by
the thought that the potion might be merely fruit-juice with a little neutral
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