| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: that was dear to a little girl's heart was supplied in profusion, and
nothing so rich and beautiful could ever have been found in the biggest
department stores in America. Of course Dorothy enjoyed all these
luxuries, and the only reason she had heretofore preferred to live in
Kansas was because her uncle and aunt loved her and needed her with them.
Now, however, all was to be changed, and Dorothy was really more
delighted to know that her dear relatives were to share in her good
fortune and enjoy the delights of the Land of Oz, than she was to
possess such luxury for herself.
Next morning, at Ozma's request, Dorothy dressed herself in a pretty
sky-blue gown of rich silk, trimmed with real pearls. The buckles of
The Emerald City of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: to go black, its tiny gallery windows and its vast expanse of slate
roof. I was not rich enough to have a good room; I was not even rich
enough to have a room to myself. Juste and I shared a double-bedded
room on the fifth floor.
On our side of the landing there were but two rooms--ours and a
smaller one, occupied by Z. Marcas, our neighbor. For six months Juste
and I remained in perfect ignorance of the fact. The old woman who
managed the house had indeed told us that the room was inhabited, but
she had added that we should not be disturbed, that the occupant was
exceedingly quiet. In fact, for those six months, we never met our
fellow-lodger, and we never heard a sound in his room, in spite of the
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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 The Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Lay beneath in dust and ashes.
And the Jossakeeds, the Prophets,
The Wabenos, the Magicians,
And the Medicine-men, the Medas,
Painted upon bark and deer-skin
Figures for the songs they chanted,
For each song a separate symbol,
Figures mystical and awful,
Figures strange and brightly colored;
And each figure had its meaning,
Each some magic song suggested.
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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 Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: done upon occasion, in order to reconcile the breach of the spirit,
with the preservation of the letter, of their own legislation.
However, this suspicion, if it could be said to exist in a mind
so generous as Marian's, was very soon dissipated by the entrance
of the woman's husband, who testified as much joy as his wife
had done at the sight of Robin; and in a short time the whole of
the party were amicably seated round a smoking supper of river-fish
and wild wood fowl, on which the baron fell with as much alacrity
as if he had been a true pilgrim from Palestine.
The husband produced some recondite flasks of wine, which were laid
by in a binn consecrated to Robin, whose occasional visits to them
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