| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: upon how scarce it is, and how difficult it is to
obtain."
"Pardon me for interrupting you," said King
Kaliko, coming to their side, "but now that we
have rescued Shaggy's brother I would like to
return to my royal cavern. Being the King of the
Nomes, it is my duty to look after my restless
subjects and see that they behave themselves."
So they all turned and began walking through the
Metal Forest to the other side of the great domed
cave, where they had first entered it. Shaggy and
Tik-Tok of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: consumption of food. Whether fine or wet, he passed most of it pacing
the gravel paths in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The children got to know his
figure, and the sparrows expected their daily scattering of bread-
crumbs. No doubt, since he often gave a copper and almost always a
handful of bread, he was not as blind to his surroundings as he
thought himself.
He thought that these winter days were spent in long hours before
white papers radiant in electric light; and in short passages through
fog-dimmed streets. When he came back to his work after lunch he
carried in his head a picture of the Strand, scattered with omnibuses,
and of the purple shapes of leaves pressed flat upon the gravel, as if
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--
seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation.
Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather
than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather
than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it.
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed
Second Inaugural Address |
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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: lances, and slaying many, for our Indian weapons could work little
harm to men and horses clad in armour. Therefore we must fly, and
indeed, flight was my plan, for by it I hoped to lead the foe to
that part of the defile where the road was narrow and the cliffs
sheer, and they might be crushed by the stones which should hail on
them from above. All went well; we fled, the Spaniards followed
flushed with victory, till they were fairly in the trap. Now a
single boulder came rushing from on high, and falling on a horse,
killed him, then rebounding, carried dismay and wounds to those
behind. Another followed, and yet another, and I grew glad at
heart, for it seemed to me that the danger was over, and that for
Montezuma's Daughter |
