| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: moment.
"Be quick, then!" she cried. "Tell me what I must do
and let me do it, or it will be too late."
"You made Trot's friend, Cap'n Bill, a grasshopper. I
command you to give him back his proper form again," said
the Scarecrow.
"Where is he? Where's the grasshopper? Quick -- quick!"
she screamed.
Cap'n Bill, who had been deeply interested in this
conversation, gave a great leap from Trot's shoulder and
landed on that of the Scarecrow. Blinkie saw him alight
The Scarecrow of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: you, ready made.
The poor aunt was under the spell. She saw the far-off country of
love, she saw, hovering above the land, the angel whose tenderness
gave to all that beauty a burning glow. She was drinking in the letter
at long draughts; how should it have been otherwise? The girl who had
put love from her was now a woman ripened by repressed and pent-up
passion, by all the longings continually and gladly offered up as a
sacrifice on the altar of the hearth. Mlle. Armande was not like the
Duchess. She did not look like an angel. She was rather like the
little, straight, slim and slender, ivory-tinted statues, which those
wonderful sculptors, the builders of cathedrals, placed here and there
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: hang me if I can understand the man that wants any enticement to
hold up his hands.' I drew a bank-note out of my fob and tossed it
to the landlord. 'There are the stakes,' said I. 'I'll fight you
for first blood, since you seem to make so much work about it. If
you tap my claret first, there are five guineas for you, and I'll
go with you to any squire you choose to mention. If I tap yours,
you'll perhaps let on that I'm the better man, and allow me to go
about my lawful business at my own time and convenience, by God; is
that fair, my lads?' says I, appealing to the company.
'Ay, ay,' said the chorus of chawbacons; 'he can't say no fairer
nor that, he can't. Take off thy coat master!'
|
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 Adventure by Jack London: any such foolishness, and that I was to sail direct for Poonga-
Poonga, and that if I couldn't take her word that she was your
partner, she'd get along without me and the Flibberty. And right
there's where she fooled me.
"Down in the Emily's cabin was them three soaks--you know them--
Fowler and Curtis and that Brahms chap. 'Have a drink,' says she.
I thought they looked surprised when she unlocked the whisky locker
and sent a nigger for the glasses and water-monkey. But she must
have tipped them off unbeknownst to me, and they knew just what to
do. 'Excuse me,' she says, 'I'm going on deck a minute.' Now that
minute was half an hour. I hadn't had a drink in ten days. I'm an
|
