| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: But not her honesty to give consent.
[Enter Countess.]
See where she comes; was never father had
Against his child an embassage so bad?
COUNTESS.
My Lord and father, I have sought for you:
My mother and the Peers importune you
To keep in presence of his majesty,
And do your best to make his highness merry.
WARWICK.
[Aside.] How shall I enter in this graceless arrant?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: was built, while they ran about like pismires at his feet; and
to think that, in spite of their difference in size, there were
affection and sympathy between them and him! Indeed, it has
always seemed to me that the Giant needed the little people
more than the Pygmies needed the Giant. For, unless they had
been his neighbors and well wishers, and, as we may say, his
playfellows, Antaeus would not have had a single friend in the
world. No other being like himself had ever been created. No
creature of his own size had ever talked with him, in thunder-
like accents, face to face. When he stood with his head among
the clouds, he was quite alone, and had been so for hundreds of
Tanglewood Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: who defended them, made it appear impregnable; and meantime,
from without the walls, he was assailed by a greater danger than
can be expressed. For the choice men of Gaul, picked out of
each nation, and well armed, came to relieve Alesia, to the
number of three hundred thousand; nor were there in the town
less than one hundred and seventy thousand. So that Caesar
being shut up betwixt two such forces, was compelled to protect
himself by two walls, one towards the town, the other against
the relieving army, as knowing it these forces should join, his
affairs would be entirely ruined. The danger that he underwent
before Alesia, justly gained him great honor on many accounts,
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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 Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: winking at her comically. "My brains are the Carefully-
Assorted, Double-Distilled, High-Efficiency sort that the
Wizard of Oz makes. He admits, himself, that my brains
are the best he ever manufactured."
"I think I've heard of you," said Trot slowly, as she
looked the Scarecrow over with much interest; "but you
used to live in the Land of Oz."
"Oh, I do now," he replied cheerfully. "I've just come
over the mountains from the Quadling Country to see if I
can be of any help to you."
"Who, me?" asked Pon.
The Scarecrow of Oz |
