| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: These latter two dishes taste entirely unlike each
other or their separate ingredients. They are moreover
great in nutrition.
ITEM--Boiled rice and raisins.
ITEM--Dish number three with raisins.
ITEM--Rice boiled with raisins, sugar sprinkled on
top, and then baked.
ITEM--Ditto with dish number three.
All these are good--and different.
Some people like to cook and have a natural knack for
it. Others hate it. If you are one of the former,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: So sang in the gloom of youth the bird of hope;
So we, exulting, hearkened and desired.
For lo! as in the palace porch of life
We huddled with chimeras, from within -
How sweet to hear! - the music swelled and fell,
And through the breach of the revolving doors
What dreams of splendour blinded us and fled!
I have since then contended and rejoiced;
Amid the glories of the house of life
Profoundly entered, and the shrine beheld:
Yet when the lamp from my expiring eyes
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: distance off."
"Do you hear anything on top of the mountain 'cept
the bell?" inquired Dorothy
"Yes. The people are calling to one another in alarm
and many footsteps are approaching the place where we
will reach the flat top of the mountain."
This made Dorothy feel somewhat anxious. "I'd thought
we were going to visit just common, ordinary people,"
she remarked, "but they're pretty clever, it seems, and
they know some kinds of magic, too. They may be
dangerous, Ozma. P'raps we'd better stayed at home."
Glinda of Oz |
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 Exiles by Honore de Balzac: On going into the house, the Exile shut himself into his room, lighted
the inspiring lamp, and gave himself over to the ruthless demon of
Work, seeking words of the silence and ideas of the night. Godefroid
sat down in his window sill, by turns gazing at the moon reflected in
the water, and studying the mysteries of the sky. Lost in one of the
trances that were frequent to him, he traveled from sphere to sphere,
from vision to vision, listening for obscure rustlings and the voices
of angels, and believing that he heard them; seeing, or fancying that
he saw, a divine radiance in which he lost himself; striving to attain
the far-away goal, the source of all light, the fount of all harmony.
Presently the vast clamor of Paris, brought down on the current, was
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