| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: perils accumulating to starboard, and be crazy to get to port again.
Then came the leadsman's sepulchral cry--
'D-e-e-p four!'
Deep four in a bottomless crossing! The terror of it took my breath away.
'M-a-r-k three!... M-a-r-k three... Quarter less three!...
Half twain!'
This was frightful! I seized the bell-ropes and stopped the engines.
'Quarter twain! Quarter twain! MARK twain!'
I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do.
I was quaking from head to foot, and I could have hung my hat on
my eyes, they stuck out so far.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: to render them more intelligent and agreeable.
When the party reached the mountain Ozma and Dorothy
showed them how to pass around the invisible wall --
which had been built by the Flatheads after the Adepts
were transformed -- and how to gain the up-and-down
stairway that led to the mountain top.
The Su-dic had watched the approach of the party from
the edge of the mountain and was frightened when he saw
that the three Adepts had recovered their natural forms
and were coming back to their former home. He realized
that his power would soon be gone and yet he determined
Glinda of Oz |
