| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: though it had evidently been inhabited of late, was as still as the bush
round it, and some guinea-fowl got up out of the prickly pear bushes
right at the kraal gate. I remember that I hesitated a little before
going in, there was such an air of desolation about the spot. Nature
never looks desolate when man has not yet laid his hand upon her breast;
she is only lonely. But when man has been, and has passed away, then
she looks desolate.
"Well, I passed into the kraal, and went up to the principal hut. In
front of the hut was something with an old sheep-skin kaross thrown over
it. I stooped down and drew off the rug, and then shrank back amazed,
for under it was the body of a young woman recently dead. For a moment
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: escaped unnoticed to a grove of trees that stood near"
"Wonderful!" exclaimed the Pumpkinhead, admiringly.
"It was, indeed," agreed the Woggle-Bug. "I
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have never ceased to congratulate myself for escaping while I was Highly
Magnified; for even my excess-
Line-Art Drawing
ive knowledge would have proved of little use to me had I remained a tiny,
insignificant insect."
"I didn't know before," said Tip, looking at the
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The Marvelous Land of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: assisting in any battle. No one ever had more unconscious allies
than did Molly at that time. But she used them consciously, or
almost consciously. She frequented them; she spoke of Eastern
matters; she found that she had acquaintances whom the Ogdens
also knew, and she often brought them into the conversation. For
it may be said, I think, that she was fighting a battle--nay, a
campaign. And perhaps this was a hopeful sign for the Virginian
(had he but known it), that the girl resorted to allies. She
surrounded herself, she steeped herself, with the East, to have,
as it were, a sort of counteractant against the spell of the
black-haired horse man.
The Virginian |
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 Exiles by Honore de Balzac: successive evolutions, as of a chrysalis, which God thus wrought in
our souls, this infusorial life, so to speak, communicated from each
zone to the next, more vivid, more spiritual, more perceptive in its
ascent, represented, rather dimly no doubt, but marvelously enough to
his inexperienced hearers, the impulse given to Nature by the
Almighty. Supported by many texts from the Sacred Scriptures, which he
used as a commentary on his own statements to express by concrete
images the abstract arguments he felt to be wanting, he flourished the
Spirit of God like a torch over the deep secrets of creation, with an
eloquence peculiar to himself, and accents that urged conviction on
his audience. As he unfolded his mysterious system and all its
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