| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: Say, none the less, you do, for on your tongue
Falsehood for very shame would turn to truth.
DUCHESS
What if I do not speak at all? They say
Lovers are happiest when they are in doubt
GUIDO
Nay, doubt would kill me, and if I must die,
Why, let me die for joy and not for doubt.
Oh, tell me may I stay, or must I go?
DUCHESS
I would not have you either stay or go;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: and whirled round in a giddy dance. Then she tripped back to them
with sparkling eyes and smiling cheeks, having regained her usual
happy mood and forgotten all her worry about being lost.
They found her a charming companion, and her dancing and laughter--
for she laughed at times like the tinkling of a silver bell--did much
to enliven their journey and keep them contented.
6. The City Of Beasts
When noon came they opened the Fox-King's basket of luncheon, and
found a nice roasted turkey with cranberry sauce and some slices of
bread and butter. As they sat on the grass by the roadside the
shaggy man cut up the turkey with his pocket-knife and passed slices
The Road to Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: getting out of this hole. Thank God, I can get off
to Scotland tomorrow. But I say, Semple, what's the
matter with your visiting me at my place there? I'll
give you the greatest shooting and fishing you ever heard of."
The Broker was thinking of something else. "What is to be
the precise position of the Company, in the immediate future?"
he asked.
"Company? What Company?"
Semple smiled grimly. "Have you already forgotten
that there is such a thing?" he queried, with irony.
"Why, man, this Company that paid for this verra fine
The Market-Place |
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 Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: blaze with his mind's eye, and his soul shrank, and darkness fell
upon the light.
When Keawe came to himself a little, he was aware it was the night
when the band played at the hotel. Thither he went, because he
feared to be alone; and there, among happy faces, walked to and
fro, and heard the tunes go up and down, and saw Berger beat the
measure, and all the while he heard the flames crackle, and saw the
red fire burning in the bottomless pit. Of a sudden the band
played HIKI-AO-AO; that was a song that he had sung with Kokua, and
at the strain courage returned to him.
"It is done now," he thought, "and once more let me take the good
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