| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: such feelings. Sleep came not near my couch--while the hours
waned and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness
which had dominion over me. I endeavoured to believe that much,
if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence
of the gloomy furniture of the room--of the dark and tattered
draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising
tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled
uneasily about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were
fruitless. An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame;
and, at length, there sat upon my very heart an incubus of
utterly causeless alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp and a
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "I was born here," said the Tin Woodman, "but the
forest has few inhabitants except the wild beasts. I
cannot think of anyone living near here with whom
Nimmie Amee might care to live."
"Why not go to Ku-Klip and ask him what has become of
the girl?" proposed Polychrome.
That struck them all as being a good suggestion, so
once more they started to tramp through the forest,
taking the direct path to Ku-Klip's house, for both the
tin twins knew the way, having followed it many times.
Ku-Klip lived at the far edge of the great forest,
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: The soldiers marched back through the arch again, and with them
marched the shaggy man, Dorothy, Toto, and Button-Bright. Once
through the opening they found a fine, big city spread out before
them, all the houses of carved marble in beautiful colors. The
decorations were mostly birds and other fowl, such as peacocks,
pheasants, turkeys, prairie-chickens, ducks, and geese. Over each
doorway was carved a head representing the fox who lived in that
house, this effect being quite pretty and unusual.
As our friends marched along, some of the foxes came out on the
porches and balconies to get a view of the strangers. These foxes
were all handsomely dressed, the girl-foxes and women-foxes wearing
The Road to Oz |
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 Adventure by Jack London: the other of us had our rifles taken away for a week just because
of a tiny speck of rust. We had to know how to build fires in the
driving rain, too, out of wet wood, when we camped out, which was
the hardest thing of all--except grammar, I do believe. We learned
more from Dad and Von than from the governesses; Dad taught us
French and Von German. We learned both languages passably well,
and we learned them wholly in the saddle or in camp.
"In the cool season the girls used to come down and visit me in
Hilo, where Dad had two houses, one at the beach, or the three of
us used to go down to our place in Puna, and that meant canoes and
boats and fishing and swimming. Then, too, Dad belonged to the
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