| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: I was sick for the sight of a Navajo blanket. My shack's glowing
with them. And my books needed me, and the boys, and the critters,
and Kate."
"Kate?" repeated Miss Meron, quickly.
"Kate's my horse. I'm going back on the 5:25 to-night. This
is my regular trip, you know. I came around here to buy a paper,
because it has become a habit. And then, too, I sort of
felt--well, something told me that you----"
"You're a nice boy," said Miss Meron. "By the way, did I tell
you that I married the manager of the show the week after I got
back? We go to Bloomington to-night, and then we jump to St. Paul.
Buttered Side Down |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: means of subsistence or articles of commerce; indeed, a large portion
of the human family do not use the products of the soil as food at
all, but live on the milk and cheese and flesh of their flocks and
herds, whilst all men everywhere tame and domesticate the more useful
kinds of animals, and turn them to account as fellow-workers in war
and for other purposes.
Yes, I cannot but agree with what you say (he answered), when I see
that animals so much stronger than man become so subservient to his
hand that he can use them as he lists.
Soc. And as we reflect on the infinite beauty and utility and the
variety of nature, what are we to say of the fact that man has been
The Memorabilia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: fasten one end of the strap to a stout limb of the tree, pointing to
one which extended quite to the edge of the gulf. Button-Bright did
that, climbing the tree and then crawling out upon the limb until he
was nearly over the gulf. There he managed to fasten the strap, which
reached to the ground below, and then he slid down it and was caught
by the Wizard, who feared he might fall into the chasm. Scraps was
delighted. She seized the lower end of the strap, and telling them
all to get out of her way, she went back as far as the strap would
reach and then made a sudden run toward the gulf. Over the edge she
swung, clinging to the strap until it had gone as far as its length
permitted, when she let go and sailed gracefully through the air until
The Lost Princess 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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: done that which He has not; and in that wholesome discipline I
long that women as well as men should share.
And now I come to a thrift of the highest kind, as contrasted with
a waste the most deplorable and ruinous of all; thrift of those
faculties which connect us with the unseen and spiritual world;
with humanity, with Christ, with God; thrift of the immortal
spirit. I am not going now to give you a sermon on duty. You
hear such, I doubt not, in church every Sunday, far better than I
can preach to you. I am going to speak rather of thrift of the
heart, thrift of the emotions. How they are wasted in these days
in reading what are called sensation novels, all know but too
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