| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: midst of his trouble, that all was but a delusion; in the former,
the heavy anguish was his actual life.
From this perilous state he was redeemed by an incident which
more than one person witnessed, but of which the shrewdest could
not explain or conjecture the operation on Owen Warland's mind.
It was very simple. On a warm afternoon of spring, as the artist
sat among his riotous companions with a glass of wine before him,
a splendid butterfly flew in at the open window and fluttered
about his head.
"Ah," exclaimed Owen, who had drank freely, "are you alive again,
child of the sun and playmate of the summer breeze, after your
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: so you may as well make up your mind to it."
"It's hard luck," replied her aunt, looking around with an awed
expression; "but folks can get used to anything, if they try.
Eh, Henry?"
"Why, as to that," said Uncle Henry, slowly, "I b'lieve in takin'
what's pervided us, an' askin' no questions. I've traveled some, Em,
in my time, and you hain't; an' that makes a difference atween us."
Then Dorothy showed them through the rooms. The first was a handsome
sitting-room, with windows opening upon the rose gardens. Then came
separate bedrooms for Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, with a fine bathroom
between them. Aunt Em had a pretty dressing room, besides, and Dorothy
The Emerald City of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Poems by Bronte Sisters: And, like a god, I then withdrew
To my own heaven above.
"And never more could she invoke
My presence to her sphere;
No prayer, no plaint, no cry of hers
Could win my awful ear.
I knew her blinded constancy
Would ne'er my deeds betray,
And, calm in conscience, whole in heart.
I went my tranquil way.
"Yet, sometimes, I still feel a wish,
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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 Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: And where is the home of the water-babies? In St. Brandan's fairy
isle.
Did you never hear of the blessed St. Brandan, how he preached to
the wild Irish on the wild, wild Kerry coast, he and five other
hermits, till they were weary and longed to rest? For the wild
Irish would not listen to them, or come to confession and to mass,
but liked better to brew potheen, and dance the pater o'pee, and
knock each other over the head with shillelaghs, and shoot each
other from behind turf-dykes, and steal each other's cattle, and
burn each other's homes; till St. Brandan and his friends were
weary of them, for they would not learn to be peaceable Christians
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