| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: of her, that each one prayed he might win her for his own bed
fellow.
"Telemachus," said she, addressing her son, "I fear you are no
longer so discreet and well conducted as you used to be. When
you were younger you had a greater sense of propriety; now,
however, that you are grown up, though a stranger to look at you
would take you for the son of a well to do father as far as size
and good looks go, your conduct is by no means what it should
be. What is all this disturbance that has been going on, and how
came you to allow a stranger to be so disgracefully ill-treated?
What would have happened if he had suffered serious injury while
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: only were they known; but they had changed me, for they had
proved that I COULD impress. A sweeter secret nestled deeper in
my heart; one full of tenderness and as full of strength: it
took the sting out of Hunsden's sarcasm; it kept me unbent by
shame, and unstirred by wrath. But of all this I could say
nothing--nothing decisive at least; uncertainty sealed my lips,
and during the interval of silence by which alone I replied to
Mr. Hunsden, I made up my mind to be for the present wholly
misjudged by him, and misjudged I was; he thought he had been
rather too hard upon me, and that I was crushed by the weight of
his upbraidings; so to re-assure me he said, doubtless I should
The Professor |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: The farms were not nearly so well cared for here as they were
farther back. There were fewer houses and fewer fruit trees, and
the farther they went the more dismal and lonesome the country became.
At noon they sat down by the roadside, near a little brook,
and Dorothy opened her basket and got out some bread. She offered
a piece to the Scarecrow, but he refused.
"I am never hungry," he said, "and it is a lucky thing I am not,
for my mouth is only painted, and if I should cut a hole in it so
I could eat, the straw I am stuffed with would come out, and that
would spoil the shape of my head."
Dorothy saw at once that this was true, so she only nodded and
The Wizard of Oz |
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 Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: hurt bad.
"But laws," he says, "it was only just fear that gave
him that last little spurt of strength, and of course it
soon played out and he laid down in the bush, and there
wasn't anybody to help him, and he died."
Then the old man cried and grieved, and said he was a murderer
and the mark of Cain was on him, and he had disgraced
his family and was going to be found out and hung.
But Tom said:
"No, you ain't going to be found out. You DIDN'T kill him.
ONE lick wouldn't kill him. Somebody else done it."
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