| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: quaint people who inhabit this wonderful fairyland.
It was no easy task to obey this order and land Trot
and Cap'n Bill safely in Oz, as you will discover by
reading this book. Indeed, it required the best efforts
of our dear old friend, the Scarecrow, to save them
from a dreadful fate on the journey; but the story
leaves them happily located in Ozma's splendid palace
and Dorothy has promised me that Button-Bright and the
three girls are sure to encounter, in the near future,
some marvelous adventures in the Land of Oz, which I
hope to be permitted to relate to you in the next Oz
The Scarecrow of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: their voices and speak--and there is only a deadly silence? Here and there
one has dared to speak aloud; but the rest whisper behind the hand; one
says, 'My son has a post, he would lose it if I spoke loud'; and another
says, 'I have a promise of land'; and another, 'I am socially intimate with
these men, and should lose my social standing if I let my voice be heard.'
Oh my wife, our land, our goodly land, which we had hoped would be free and
strong among the peoples of earth, is rotten and honeycombed with the
tyranny of gold! We who had hoped to stand first in the Anglo-Saxon
sisterhood for justice and freedom, are not even fit to stand last. Do I
not know only too bitterly how weak is my voice; and that that which I can
do is as nothing: but shall I remain silent? Shall the glow-worm refuse
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pericles by William Shakespeare: Have read it for restoratives:
The purchase is to make men glorious;
Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius.
If you, born in these latter times,
When wit's more ripe, accept my rhymes,
And that to hear an old man sing
May to your wishes pleasure bring,
I life would wish, and that I might
Waste it for you, like taper-light.
This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great
Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat;
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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 Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: charity, such as our great Saint Paul defines it, by my own trials. At
any rate, I longed to stanch the wounds of the poor in some forgotten
corner of the earth, and to prove by my example, if God would deign to
bless my efforts, that the Catholic religion, judged by its actions
for humanity, is the only true, the only beneficent and noble
civilizing force. During the last days of my diaconate, grace, no
doubt, enlightened me. I have fully forgiven my father, regarding him
as the instrument of my destiny. My mother, though I wrote her a long
and tender letter, explaining all things and proving to her that the
finger of God was guiding me, my poor mother wept many tears as she
saw my hair cut off by the scissors of the Church. She knew herself
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