| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: while, and, as we turned a corner, a great leap of silver
light and net of forest shadows fell across the road and upon
our wondering waggonful; and, swimming low among the trees,
we beheld a strange, misshapen, waning moon, half-tilted on
her back.
"Where are ye when the moon appears?" so the old poet sang,
half-taunting, to the stars, bent upon a courtly purpose.
"As the sunlight round the dim earth's midnight tower of
shadow pours,
Streaming past the dim, wide portals,
Viewless to the eyes of mortals,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: finger which seemed to George to pierce his very soul. "Twenty
cases identical with your own have been patiently observed, from
the beginning to the end. Nineteen times the woman was infected
by her husband; you hear me, sir, nineteen times out of twenty!
You believe that the disease is without danger, and you take to
yourself the right to expose your wife to what you call the
chance of your being one of those exceptions, for whom our
remedies are without effect. Very well; it is necessary that you
should know the disease which your wife, without being consulted,
will run a chance of contracting. Take that book, sir; it is the
work of my teacher. Read it yourself. Here, I have marked 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 Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: To begin the battle he poised a great stone in his left hand and cast
it full against the sturdy form of the Master Woodsman, who turned it
aside with his ax. Then rushed the three-eyed Giants of Tatary upon
the Knooks, and the Goozzle-Goblins upon the Ryls, and the
firebreathing Dragons upon the sweet Fairies. Because the Nymphs were
Ak's own people the band of Awgwas sought them out, thinking to
overcome them with ease.
But it is the Law that while Evil, unopposed, may accomplish terrible
deeds, the powers of Good can never be overthrown when opposed to
Evil. Well had it been for the King Awgwa had he known the Law!
His ignorance cost him his existence, for one flash of the ax borne by
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
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 Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: by far the most difficult of the three. Ann had
not only torn her pretty skirt and jacket, but her
crown had become bent and battered and even her
shoes were so cut and slashed that they were ready
to fall from her feet.
The officers had fared somewhat worse than their
leader, for holes were worn in the knees of their
trousers, while sharp points of rock in the roof
and sides of the tunnel had made rags of every
inch of their once brilliant uniforms. A more
tattered and woeful army never came out of a
Tik-Tok of Oz |
