| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: her and give her welcome, and they ought to arrive very soon, now."
Indeed, the dinner was no sooner finished than in rushed the
Scarecrow, to hug Dorothy in his padded arms and tell her how glad he
was to see her again. The Wizard was also most heartily welcomed by
the straw man, who was an important personage in the Land of Oz.
"How are your brains?" enquired the little humbug, as he grasped the
soft, stuffed hands of his old friend.
"Working finely," answered the Scarecrow. "I'm very certain, Oz, that
you gave me the best brains in the world, for I can think with them
day and night, when all other brains are fast asleep."
"How long did you rule the Emerald City, after I left here?" was the
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: of living objects; and in this way the whole will be divided.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.
STRANGER: That division, then, is complete; and now we may leave one half,
and take up the other; which may also be divided into two.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Which of the two halves do you mean?
STRANGER: Of course that which exercises command about animals. For,
surely, the royal science is not like that of a master-workman, a science
presiding over lifeless objects;--the king has a nobler function, which is
the management and control of living beings.
YOUNG SOCRATES: True.
STRANGER: And the breeding and tending of living beings may be observed to
Statesman |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: cited even by Mr. Grote as evidence that the two poems are not
by the same author. It seems to me that one such discrepancy,
in the midst of complete general agreement, would be much
better explained as Cervantes explained his own inconsistency
with reference to the stealing of Sancho's mule, in the
twenty-second chapter of "Don Quixote." But there is no
discrepancy. Aphrodite, though originally the moon-goddess,
like the German Horsel, had before Homer's time acquired many
of the attributes of the dawn-goddess Athene, while her lunar
characteristics had been to a great extent transferred to
Artemis and Persephone. In her renovated character, as goddess
Myths and Myth-Makers |
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 Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: We tied up at the shore above 21, and got ready. It was a foul night,
and the river was so wide, there, that a landsman's uneducated
eyes could discern no opposite shore through such a gloom.
The passengers were alert and interested; everything was satisfactory.
As I hurried through the engine-room, picturesquely gotten up
in storm toggery, I met Tom, and could not forbear delivering
myself of a mean speech--
'Ain't you glad YOU don't have to go out sounding?'
Tom was passing on, but he quickly turned, and said--
'Now just for that, you can go and get the sounding-pole yourself.
I was going after it, but I'd see you in Halifax, now, before I'd do it.'
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