| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: politics, whether the monument be in danger? Because religion was
nearest at hand to furnish a few convenient phrases, is our
invention so barren we can find no other? Suppose, for argument
sake, that the Tories favoured Margarita, the Whigs, Mrs. Tofts,
and the Trimmers, Valentini, would not Margaritians, Toftians, and
Valentinians be very tolerable marks of distinction? The Prasini
and Veniti, two most virulent factions in Italy, began, if I
remember right, by a distinction of colours in ribbons, which we
might do with as good a grace about the dignity of the blue and the
green, and serve as properly to divide the Court, the Parliament,
and the kingdom between them, as any terms of art whatsoever,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: understand why the little man's former neighbors had
brought him to this island and left him there, all alone,
so he could not annoy anyone. It was their misfortune
that they had been led to this place by their adventures,
for often they would have preferred the company of a wild
beast to that of Pessim.
On the fourth day a happy thought came to the Ork. They
had all been racking their brains for a possible way to
leave the island, and discussing this or that method,
without finding a plan that was practical. Cap'n Bill had
said he could make a raft of the trees, big enough to
The Scarecrow of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: who consequently disowned her immediately after the wedding. Before
two years passed, the rash pair were both dead, and laid quietly
side by side under one slab. (I have seen their grave; it formed
part of the pavement of a huge churchyard surrounding the grim,
soot-black old cathedral of an overgrown manufacturing town in -
shire.) They left a daughter, which, at its very birth, Charity
received in her lap--cold as that of the snow-drift I almost stuck
fast in to-night. Charity carried the friendless thing to the house
of its rich maternal relations; it was reared by an aunt-in-law,
called (I come to names now) Mrs. Reed of Gateshead. You start--did
you hear a noise? I daresay it is only a rat scrambling along the
Jane Eyre |
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 Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: by foreigners, under the pretence of justice or pro-
tection, to deliver the subjects of others, from
tyranny and oppression; and the like. Let it suf-
fice, that no estate expect to be great, that is not
awake upon any just occasion of arming.
No body can be healthful without exercise,
neither natural body nor politic; and certainly to
a kingdom or estate, a just and honorable war, is
the true exercise. A civil war, indeed, is like the
heat of a fever; but a foreign war is like the heat of
exercise, and serveth to keep the body in health;
Essays of Francis Bacon |
