| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: revelry; ofttimes till the flame of passion kindled in the breasts of
my companions and my own.[6] But now, welladay, I am deprived of those
who took delight in me, because I have slaves instead of friends as my
companions; I am robbed of my once delightful intercourse with them,
because I discern no vestige of goodwill towards me in their looks.
And as to the wine-cup and slumber--these I guard against, even as a
man might guard against an ambuscade. Think only! to dread a crowd, to
dread solitude, to dread the absence of a guard, to dread the very
guards that guard, to shrink from having those about one's self
unarmed, and yet to hate the sight of armed attendants. Can you
conceive a more troublesome circumstance?[7] But that is not all. To
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: floats on the whitened sea; the wooden poles of the spilled harpoons
obliquely bob in it; the heads of the swimming crew are scattered
about the whale in contrasting expressions of affright; while in the
black stormy distance the ship is bearing down upon the scene.
Serious fault might be found with the anatomical details of this
whale, but let that pass; since, for the life of me, I could not draw
so good a one.
In the second engraving, the boat is in the act of drawing alongside
the barnacled flank of a large running Right Whale, that rolls his
black weedy bulk in the sea like some mossy rock-slide from the
Patagonian cliffs. His jets are erect, full, and black like soot; so
Moby Dick |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: late years."
"All this speaks for the possibility that there may have been a
quarrel ending in the fatal shot. But what I want to know from
you is this - do you think it possible, that, this having happened,
Albert Graumann would not have been the first to confess his
unpremeditated crime? Is not this the most likely thing for a man
of his character to do? Would he so stubbornly deny it, if it had
happened?"
The girl started. "I had not thought of that! Why, why, of course,
he might have killed John in a moment of temper, but he was never
a man to conceal a fault. He is as pitiless towards his own
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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 Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: brilliant colors and to Dorothy it resembled a splendid
garden.
But the fishes were the most interesting of all. Some
were big and lazy, floating slowly along or lying at
rest with just their fins waving. Many with big round
eyes looked full at the girl as she watched them and
Dorothy wondered if they could hear her through the
glass if she spoke to them. In Oz, where all the
animals and birds can talk, many fishes are able to
talk also, but usually they are more stupid than birds
and animals because they think slowly and haven't much
Glinda of Oz |
