| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness,
added to a student's thirst for knowledge. Under the guidance of
my new preceptors I entered with the greatest diligence into the
search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life; but the
latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an
inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I
could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable
to any but a violent death! Nor were these my only visions.
The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded
by my favourite authors, the fulfillment of which I most eagerly sought;
and if my incantations were always unsuccessful, I attributed the failure
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: He helped the Ryls to feed their plants and the Knooks to keep order
among the animals. The little immortals regarded him as a privileged
person, being especially protected by Queen Zurline and her nymphs and
favored by the great Ak himself.
One day the Master Woodsman came back to the forest of Burzee. He had
visited, in turn, all his forests throughout the world, and they were
many and broad.
Not until he entered the glade where the Queen and her nymphs were
assembled to greet him did Ak remember the child he had permitted
Necile to adopt. Then he found, sitting familiarly in the circle of
lovely immortals, a broad-shouldered, stalwart youth, who, when erect,
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
