| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: flour and meal," replied Mr. Bunn. "There is a butter mine just at
the opposite side of the village. The trees which you see here are
all doughleanders and doughderas, and in the season we get quite a
crop of dough-nuts off them."
"I should think the flour would blow around and get into your eyes,"
said Dorothy.
"No," said he; "we are bothered with cracker dust sometimes, but
never with flour."
Then he took her to see Johnny Cake, a cheerful old gentleman who
lived near by.
"I suppose you've heard of me," said old Johnny, with an air of pride.
The Emerald City of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: radical moisture,--and that he had managed the point so well, that there
was not one single word wet or dry upon radical heat or radical moisture,
throughout the whole chapter,--or a single syllable in it, pro or con,
directly or indirectly, upon the contention betwixt these two powers in any
part of the animal oeconomy--
'O thou eternal Maker of all beings!'--he would cry, striking his breast
with his right hand (in case he had one)--'Thou whose power and goodness
can enlarge the faculties of thy creatures to this infinite degree of
excellence and perfection,--What have we Moonites done?'
Chapter 3.XXXIV.
With two strokes, the one at Hippocrates, the other at Lord Verulam, did my
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: himself too, I fancy. He understands those things, and he says
it's a remarkable piece of work. But are you fancying she's an
authoress? --not a bit of it. She's a woman with a heart, before
everything, but you'll see. Now she has a little English girl
with her, and a whole family she's looking after."
"Oh, something in a philanthropic way?"
"Why, you will look at everything in the worst light. It's not
from philanthropy, it's from the heart. They--that is, Vronsky--
had a trainer, an Englishman, first-rate in his own line, but a
drunkard. He's completely given up to drink--delirium tremens--
and the family were cast on the world. She saw them, helped them,
Anna Karenina |
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 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own
little adventures."
"Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I
observed.
"You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we
went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary
Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary
combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more
daring than any effort of the imagination."
"A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting."
"You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
