| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: She never gets confused over her dates, and I always do. But when she
does find me out, she makes no row at all. I sometimes wish she would;
but she merely laughs at me."
"I hate the way you talk about your married life, Harry,"
said Basil Hallward, strolling towards the door that led into
the garden. "I believe that you are really a very good husband,
but that you are thoroughly ashamed of your own virtues.
You are an extraordinary fellow. You never say a moral thing,
and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply
a pose."
"Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know,"
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: She always wore a simple white costume, that suited all the heads.
For, being able to change her face whenever she liked, the Princess
had no interest in wearing a variety of gowns, as have other ladies
who are compelled to wear the same face constantly.
Of course the thirty heads were in great variety, no two formed alike
but all being of exceeding loveliness. There were heads with golden
hair, brown hair, rich auburn hair and black hair; but none with gray
hair. The heads had eyes of blue, of gray, of hazel, of brown and of
black; but there were no red eyes among them, and all were bright and
handsome. The noses were Grecian, Roman, retrousse and Oriental,
representing all types of beauty; and the mouths were of assorted
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: not indeed visible as they advanced into the apartment; for the
light which displayed them, being only that of two expiring
lamps, was extremely faint. The master--to use the Italian
phrase for persons of this description--approached the upper end
of the room, with a genuflection like that of a Catholic to the
crucifix, and at the same time crossed himself. The ladies
followed in silence, and arm in arm. Two or three low broad
steps led to a platform in front of the altar, or what resembled
such. Here the sage took his stand, and placed the ladies beside
him, once more earnestly repeating by signs his injunctions of
silence. The Italian then, extending his bare arm from under his
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: because she remembered--
But the great grown person who had brought Bessie Bell to the pretty
house said: ``Oh, Bessie Bell! Why, Bessie Bell! For shame, Bessie
Bell! How could you do so to the beautiful peacock-feather-fly-
brush!''
So Bessie Bell could only cry--and that very softly--and feel
ashamed as she was bid, and forget what it was that she remembered.
Bessie Bell might have remembered one time when a great house was
all desolate, and when nobody or nothing at all breathed in the
whole great big house, but one little tiny girl and one great big
white cat, with just one black spot on its tail.
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