| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: majority of young people, above all those who have their way to
make, are more or less Jacobin on leaving college. . . .
Jacobinism is born of social decomposition just as mushrooms are
born of a fermenting soil. Consider the authentic monuments of
its thought--the speeches of Robespierre and Saint-Just, the
debates of the Legislative Assembly and the Convention, the
harangues, addresses, and reports of Girondists and Montagnards.
Never did men speak so much to say so little; the empty verbiage
and swollen emphasis swamp any truth there may be beneath their
monotony and their turgidity. The Jacobin is full of respect for
the phantoms of his reasoning brain; in his eyes they are more
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: of society does a great deal to foster the worst
elements in human nature. The love of power is an
impulse which, though innate in very ambitious men,
is chiefly promoted as a rule by the actual experience
of power. In a world where none could acquire
much power, the desire to tyrannize would be much
less strong than it is at present. Nevertheless, I
cannot think that it would be wholly absent, and
those in whom it would exist would often be men of
unusual energy and executive capacity. Such men,
if they are not restrained by the organized will of
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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 Recruit by Honore de Balzac: provincial life, and not shrinking from its pettiness or its many
disagreeable privations. Knowing, however, that her guests would
pardon luxuries if provided for their own comfort, she neglected
nothing which conduced to their personal enjoyment, and gave them,
more especially, excellent dinners.
Toward seven o'clock on this memorable evening, her guests were all
assembled in a wide circle around the fireplace. The mistress of the
house, sustained in her part by the sympathizing glances of the old
merchant, submitted with wonderful courage to the minute questioning
and stupid, or frivolous, comments of her visitors. At every rap upon
her door, every footfall echoing in the street, she hid her emotions
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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 Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Wizard, no less surprised. "If it's an enchantment, looks as if the
magician had transformed Ozma into a chunk of pitch."
CHAPTER 24
THE LITTLE PINK BEAR SPEAKS TRULY
For several minutes they all stood staring at the black spot on the
canvas of the Magic Picture, wondering what it could mean. "P'r'aps
we'd better ask the little Pink Bear about Ozma," suggested Trot.
"Pshaw!" said Button-Bright. "HE don't know anything."
"He never makes a mistake," declared the King.
"He did once, surely," said Betsy. "But perhaps he wouldn't make a
mistake again."
The Lost Princess of Oz |
