| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: exploration or adventure, she carried with her a basket
of food, and other things that a traveler in a strange
country might require, but to go away with Ozma was
quite a different thing, as experience had taught her.
The fairy Ruler of Oz only needed her silver wand --
tipped at one end with a great sparkling emerald -- to
provide through its magic all that they might need.
Therefore Ozma, having halted with her companion and
selected a smooth, grassy spot on the plain, waved her
wand in graceful curves and chanted some mystic words
in her sweet voice, and in an instant a handsome tent
Glinda of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray.
Then the Parson might preach, and drink, and sing,
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.
And God, like a father, rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as He,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel.
LONDON
I wander through each chartered street,
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: The first of these communications brought intelligence of a serious
relapse in Mr. Huntingdon's illness, entirely the result of his own
infatuation in persisting in the indulgence of his appetite for
stimulating drink. In vain had she remonstrated, in vain she had
mingled his wine with water: her arguments and entreaties were a
nuisance, her interference was an insult so intolerable that, at
length, on finding she had covertly diluted the pale port that was
brought him, he threw the bottle out of window, swearing he would
not be cheated like a baby, ordered the butler, on pain of instant
dismissal, to bring a bottle of the strongest wine in the cellar,
and affirming that he should have been well long ago if he had been
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
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 Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: magician without morals. But the brig is undoubtedly American,
and we don't want to offend them more than we have. "
'"Need anybody talk about the affair?" he says. He didn't look
at me, but I knew what was in his mind -just cold murder because
I worried him; and he'd order it as easy as ordering his carriage.
'"You can't stop 'em," I said. "There's twenty-two other men
besides me." I felt a little more 'ud set me screaming like a wired hare.
'"Undoubtedly American," Talleyrand goes on. "You would
gain something if you returned the ship - with a message of
fraternal good-will - published in the MONITEUR" (that's a French
paper like the Philadelphia AURORA).
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