| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: Dorothy kept hold of his hand and followed him, and soon they were
both walking through the air, with the kitten frisking beside them.
"Come on, Jim!" called the boy. "It's all right."
Jim had crept to the edge of the roof to look over, and being a
sensible horse and quite experienced, he made up his mind that he
could go where the others did. So, with a snort and a neigh and a
whisk of his short tail he trotted off the roof into the air and at
once began floating downward to the street. His great weight made him
fall faster than the children walked, and he passed them on the way
down; but when he came to the glass pavement he alighted upon it so
softly that he was not even jarred.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: nor a miracle; and I saw a man help her up the 'Hio side, and then
she was lost in the dusk."
"Sam, I think this rather apocryphal,--this miracle.
Crossing on floating ice isn't so easily done," said Mr. Shelby.
"Easy! couldn't nobody a done it, without de Lord. Why, now,"
said Sam, "'t was jist dis yer way. Mas'r Haley, and me,
and Andy, we comes up to de little tavern by the river, and I rides
a leetle ahead,--(I's so zealous to be a cotchin' Lizy, that I
couldn't hold in, no way),--and when I comes by the tavern winder,
sure enough there she was, right in plain sight, and dey diggin'
on behind. Wal, I loses off my hat, and sings out nuff to raise
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: voice of Providence, which had mercifully put me in a posture or
station of life wherein I might have been happy and easy; but I
would neither see it myself nor learn to know the blessing of it
from my parents. I left them to mourn over my folly, and now I am
left to mourn under the consequences of it. I abused their help
and assistance, who would have lifted me in the world, and would
have made everything easy to me; and now I have difficulties to
struggle with, too great for even nature itself to support, and no
assistance, no help, no comfort, no advice." Then I cried out,
"Lord, be my help, for I am in great distress." This was the first
prayer, if I may call it so, that I had made for many years.
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: more; the two man sat so still that they could hear the ticking
of the tall old-fashioned clock that stood outside in the hall,
and in the mind of one of them the slow monotony of sound woke
up a far, far memory. He was looking intently at the small
pen-and-ink sketch of the woman's head; it had evidently been
drawn with great care, and by a true artist, for the woman's
soul looked out of the eyes, and the lips were parted with a
strange smile. Clarke gazed still at the face; it brought to
his memory one summer evening, long ago; he saw again the long
lovely valley, the river winding between the hills, the meadows
and the cornfields, the dull red sun, and the cold white mist
The Great God Pan |
