| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Miss Gorgeous, if I regard you with suspicion.
Many a satin ribbon has a cotton back."
Scraps didn't understand this, but she had an
uneasy misgiving that she had a cotton back
herself. It would settle down, at times, and make
her squat and dumpy, and then she had to roll
herself in the road until her body stretched out again.
Chapter Ten
Shaggy Man to the Rescue
They had not gone very far before Bungle, who had
run on ahead, came bounding back to say that the
The Patchwork Girl 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 Enemies of Books by William Blades: the open grate, which supplies a ventilation to the room as useful
to the health of the books as to the health of the occupier. A coal fire
is objectionable on many grounds. It is dangerous, dirty and dusty.
On the other hand an asbestos fire, where the lumps are judiciously laid,
gives all the warmth and ventilation of a common fire without any of
its annoyances; and to any one who loves to be independent of servants,
and to know that, however deeply he may sleep over his "copy," his fire
will not fail to keep awake, an asbestos stove is invaluable.
It is a mistake also to imagine that keeping the best bound
volumes in a glass doored book-case is a preservative.
The damp air will certainly penetrate, and as the absence
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