| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: during the summer vacation, which he passed with his aunts. Until
then he had always lived, in summer, with his mother and sister
on his mother's large estate near Moscow. But that year his
sister had married, and his mother had gone abroad to a
watering-place, and he, having his essay to write, resolved to
spend the summer with his aunts. It was very quiet in their
secluded estate and there was nothing to distract his mind; his
aunts loved their nephew and heir very tenderly, and he, too, was
fond of them and of their simple, old-fashioned life.
During that summer on his aunts' estate, Nekhludoff passed
through that blissful state of existence when a young man for the
Resurrection |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: ALL our Generals, or only those who took part in the campaign of 1812?"
"The latter, your Excellency--only the Generals of 1812," replied
Chichikov. Then he added beneath his breath: "Were I to be killed for
it, I could not say what that may be supposed to mean."
"Then why should he not come and see me in person?" went on his host.
"Possibly I might be able to furnish him with much interesting
material?"
"He is afraid to come, your Excellency."
"Nonsense! Just because of a hasty word or two! I am not that sort of
man at all. In fact, I should be very happy to call upon HIM."
"Never would he permit that, your Excellency. He would greatly prefer
Dead Souls |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: old ones and tended to keep their names and pay lip-service to their
ideology. But the purpose of all of them was to arrest progress and freeze
history at a chosen moment. The familiar pendulum swing was to happen once
more, and then stop. As usual, the High were to be turned out by the
Middle, who would then become the High; but this time, by conscious
strategy, the High would be able to maintain their position permanently.
The new doctrines arose partly because of the accumulation of historical
knowledge, and the growth of the historical sense, which had hardly existed
before the nineteenth century. The cyclical movement of history was now
intelligible, or appeared to be so; and if it was intelligible, then it
was alterable. But the principal, underlying cause was that, as early
1984 |
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 Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: bread and butter, a small custard pie, an orange and nine large
strawberries, and some nuts and raisins. Singularly enough, the nuts
in this dinner-pail grew already cracked, so that Dorothy had no
trouble in picking out their meats to eat.
She spread the feast upon the rock beside her and began her dinner,
first offering some of it to Tiktok, who declined because, as he said,
he was merely a machine. Afterward she offered to share with Billina,
but the hen murmured something about "dead things" and said she
preferred her bugs and ants.
"Do the lunch-box trees and the dinner-pail trees belong to the
Wheelers?" the child asked Tiktok, while engaged in eating her meal.
Ozma of Oz |
