| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: she said, tossing her head: `You got many things for cook.
If I got all things like you, I make much better.'
She was a conceited, boastful old thing, and even misfortune could
not humble her. I was so annoyed that I felt coldly even toward
Antonia and listened unsympathetically when she told me her father
was not well.
`My papa sad for the old country. He not look good.
He never make music any more. At home he play violin
all the time; for weddings and for dance. Here never.
When I beg him for play, he shake his head no. Some days
he take his violin out of his box and make with his fingers
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Broil'd entrails are their food, and beef's continued chine.
But when the rage of hunger was repress'd,
Thus spoke Evander to his royal guest:
"These rites, these altars, and this feast, O king,
From no vain fears or superstition spring,
Or blind devotion, or from blinder chance,
Or heady zeal, or brutal ignorance;
But, sav'd from danger, with a grateful sense,
The labors of a god we recompense.
See, from afar, yon rock that mates the sky,
About whose feet such heaps of rubbish lie;
Aeneid |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: And yet he does the bravest things that any lion might,
Because he knows that cowardice is not considered right.
There's Tik-tok-he's a clockwork man and quite a funny sight--
He talks and walks mechanically, when he's wound up tight;
And we've a Hungry Tiger who would babies love to eat
But never does because we feed him other kinds of meat.
It's hard to name all of the freaks this noble Land's acquired;
'Twould make my song so very long that you would soon be tired;
But give attention while I mention one wise Yellow Hen
And Nine fine Tiny Piglets living in a golden pen.
Just search the whole world over--sail the seas from coast to coast--
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
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 Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: and found her at a mountain ranch-house. She had been there a
couple of days, and was about to set out for the Rocking Chair
with the owner of the place, when he arrived and volunteered to
see her as far as her uncle's ranch.
"I reckon there ain't any use asking you if you seen anything of
Wolf Leroy's outfit," said Forbes, a weather-beaten Westerner
with a shrewd, wrinkled face.
"No, I reckon there's no use asking me that," returned Collins,
with a laugh that deceptively seemed to include the older man in
the joke.
"We're after them for rustling a bunch of Circle 33 cows. Well,
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