| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: a lone mirror. Her own make-up was so simple that it was quickly accomplished,
and she left the trio of ladies holding an armed truce while they passed
judgment upon her. Letty was close at her shoulder, and with patience and
persistence they managed to get a nook in one of the wings which commanded a
view of the stage.
A small, dark man, dapper and debonair, swallow-tailed and top-hatted, was
waltzing about the stage with dainty, mincing steps, and in a thin little
voice singing something or other about somebody or something evidently
pathetic. As his waning voice neared the end of the lines, a large woman,
crowned with an amazing wealth of blond hair, thrust rudely past Edna, trod
heavily on her toes, and shoved her contemptuously to the side. "Bloomin'
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: inquiry found he used to go.
This letter forced an answer from him, by which, though I
found I was to be abandoned, yet I found he had sent a letter
to me some time before, desiring me to go down to the Bath
again. Its contents I shall come to presently.
It is true that sick-beds are the time when such correspondences
as this are looked on with different countenances, and seen
with other eyes than we saw them with, or than they appeared
with before. My lover had been at the gates of death, and at
the very brink of eternity; and, it seems, had been struck with
a due remorse, and with sad reflections upon his past life of
Moll Flanders |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: To all their shouting and screaming I join the harlot in singing:
"I have known for seven years that horseshoe nails are iron."
So this can be the answer to your first question. Please do not
give these asses any other answer to their useless braying about
that word "sola" than simply "Luther will have it so, and he says
that he is a doctor above all the papal doctors." Let it remain
at that. I will, from now on, hold them in contempt, and have
already held them in contempt, as long as they are the kind of
people that they are - asses, I should say. And there are brazen
idiots among them who have never learned their own art of
sophistry - like Dr. Schmidt and Snot-Nose, and such like them.
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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 The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: take life as you find it. We shall be kind masters, and will strive to
render your existence as pleasant as possible. Are you willing to carry us
through the air wherever we wish to go?"
"Certainly," answered the Gump. "I greatly prefer to navigate the air. For
should I travel on the earth and meet with one of my own species, my
embarrassment would be something awful!"
"I can appreciate that," said the Tin Woodman, sympathetically.
"And yet," continued the Thing, "when I carefully
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look you over, my masters, none of you seems to be constructed much more
artistically than I am."
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
