| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Then, if my ears were longer, would I be a horse?" asked Jack.
"My friend," said Tip, gravely, "you'll never be anything but a Pumpkinhead,
no matter how big your ears are."
"Oh," returned Jack, nodding; "I think I understand."
"If you do, you're a wonder," remarked the boy "but there's no harm in
thinking you understand. I guess these ears are ready now. Will you hold the
horse while I stick them on?"
"Certainly, if you'll help me up," said Jack.
So Tip raised him to his feet, and the Pumpkinhead went to the horse and
held its head while the boy bored two holes in it with his knife-blade and
inserted the ears.
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: invasion: and it is a striking fact, lately communicated to me by Dr.
Hooker, that all the flowering plants, about forty-six in number, common to
Tierra del Fuego and to Europe still exist in North America, which must
have lain on the line of march. But I do not doubt that some temperate
productions entered and crossed even the lowlands of the tropics at the
period when the cold was most intense,--when arctic forms had migrated some
twenty-five degrees of latitude from their native country and covered the
land at the foot of the Pyrenees. At this period of extreme cold, I
believe that the climate under the equator at the level of the sea was
about the same with that now felt there at the height of six or seven
thousand feet. During this the coldest period, I suppose that large spaces
On the Origin of Species |
