| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: name of distinction substituted for the patronymic name by the
constant heredity of the same office devolving on the family.
Formerly, in France, Spain, and Italy, when those three countries had,
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, mutual interests which
united and disunited them by perpetual warfare, the name Marana served
to express in its general sense, a prostitute. In those days women of
that sort had a certain rank in the world of which nothing in our day
can give an idea. Ninon de l'Enclos and Marian Delorme have alone
played, in France, the role of the Imperias, Catalinas, and Maranas
who, in preceding centuries, gathered around them the cassock, gown,
and sword. An Imperia built I forget which church in Rome in a frenzy
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: wished them to do. But now they had to distribute the toys according
to their own judgment, and they did not understand children as well as
did old Santa. So it is no wonder they made some laughable errors.
Mamie Brown, who wanted a doll, got a drum instead; and a drum is of
no use to a girl who loves dolls. And Charlie Smith, who delights to
romp and play out of doors, and who wanted some new rubber boots to
keep his feet dry, received a sewing box filled with colored worsteds
and threads and needles, which made him so provoked that he
thoughtlessly called our dear Santa Claus a fraud.
Had there been many such mistakes the Daemons would have accomplished
their evil purpose and made the children unhappy. But the little
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: each other than devote the money to patch up their wounds after
the battle.
LOUISE MAUDE
RESURRECTION
CHAPTER I.
MASLOVA IN PRISON.
Though hundreds of thousands had done their very best to
disfigure the small piece of land on which they were crowded
together, by paying the ground with stones, scraping away every
vestige of vegetation, cutting down the trees, turning away birds
and beasts, and filling the air with the smoke of naphtha and
Resurrection |
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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: Bell of Mugen, took a basin of bronze, and, mentally representing it to be
the bell, beat upon it until she broke it,-- crying out, at the same time,
for three hundred pieces of gold. A guest of the inn where the pair were
stopping made inquiry as to the cause of the banging and the crying, and,
on learning the story of the trouble, actually presented Umegae with three
hundred ryo (3) in gold. Afterwards a song was made about Umegae's basin
of bronze; and that song is sung by dancing girls even to this day:--
Umegae no chozubachi tataite
O-kane ga deru naraba
Mina San mi-uke wo
Sore tanomimasu
Kwaidan |
