| 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: Patchwork Girl, but Trot's enthusiastic speech struck
them as really funny. If the Great Sorceress and the
famous Wizard and the three talented Adepts at Magic
were unable as yet to solve the important problem of
the sunken isle, there was little chance for a patched
girl stuffed with cotton to succeed.
But Glinda, smiling indulgently at the earnest faces
turned toward her, patted the children's heads and
said:
"Scraps is very clever. Tell us what she has thought
of, my dear."
Glinda of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: without inquiring: one parent Northern, the other Southern.
To-day I heard a schoolmistress ask, 'Where is John gone?'
This form is so common--so nearly universal, in fact--that if she
had used 'whither' instead of 'where,' I think it would have sounded
like an affectation.
We picked up one excellent word--a word worth traveling to New
Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word--'lagniappe.'
They pronounce it lanny-yap. It is Spanish--so they said.
We discovered it at the head of a column of odds and ends in
the Picayune, the first day; heard twenty people use it the second;
inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: sixteenth. But if you are enjoying it, don't hurry home. We miss you,
Wragby misses you. But it is essential that you should get your full
amount of sunshine, sunshine and pyjamas, as the advertisements of the
Lido say. So please do stay on a little longer, if it is cheering you
up and preparing you for our sufficiently awful winter. Even today, it
rains.
I am assiduously, admirably looked after by Mrs Bolton. She is a queer
specimen. The more I live, the more I realize what strange creatures
human beings are. Some of them might Just as well have a hundred legs,
like a centipede, or six, like a lobster. The human consistency and
dignity one has been led to expect from one's fellow-men seem actually
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
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 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: fellow, who was sitting there--to look up at us very
suspiciously, and in a fierce tone of voice he said
to me, "Boy, do you belong to that gentleman?"
I quickly replied, "Yes, sir" (which was quite
correct). The tickets were handed out, and as my
master was paying for them the chief man said to
him, "I wish you to register your name here, sir,
and also the name of your nigger, and pay a dollar
duty on him."
My master paid the dollar, and pointing to the
hand that was in the poultice, requested the officer
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
