| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: house with the green blinds. To his surprise, Francis found all
horror for the deed swallowed up in sorrow for a girl and an old
man whom he judged to be in the height of peril. A tide of
generous feeling swept into his heart; he, too, would help his
father against man and mankind, against fate and justice; and
casting open the shutters he closed his eyes and threw himself with
out-stretched arms into the foliage of the chestnut.
Branch after branch slipped from his grasp or broke under his
weight; then he caught a stalwart bough under his armpit, and hung
suspended for a second; and then he let himself drop and fell
heavily against the table. A cry of alarm from the house warned
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: famous friar who created the prophetic Brazen Head. All these
antique naturalists stood in advance of their centuries, yet were
imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore were believed,
and perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the
investigation of Nature a power above Nature, and from physics a
sway over the spiritual world. Hardly less curious and
imaginative were the early volumes of the Transactions of the
Royal Society, in which the members, knowing little of the limits
of natural possibility, were continually recording wonders or
proposing methods whereby wonders might be wrought.
But to Georgiana the most engrossing volume was a large folio
Mosses From An Old Manse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Ruggedo's form did not change. But the Nome knew at once that
"Pyrzqxgl!" was the Magic Word, so he rushed at the Fox and cried:
"I want you to become a Goose--Pyrzqxgl!"
But the Nome did not pronounce the word aright, either, having never
heard it spoken but once before, and then with a wrong accent. So the
Fox was not transformed, but it had to run away to escape being caught
by the angry Nome.
Ruggedo now began pronouncing the Magic Word in every way he could
think of, hoping to hit the right one, and the Fox, hiding in a bush,
was somewhat troubled by the fear that he might succeed. However, the
Wizard, who was used to magic arts, remained calm and soon remembered
The Magic 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 Adieu by Honore de Balzac: the grenadier. "I've neither wife nor child nor mother."
"I confide them to your care," said the major, pointing to the count
and his wife.
"Then be easy; I'll care for them, as though they were my very eyes."
The raft was now sent off with so much violence toward the opposite
side of the river, that as it touched ground, the shock was felt by
all. The count, who was at the edge of it, lost his balance and fell
into the river; as he fell, a cake of sharp ice caught him, and cut
off his head, flinging it to a great distance.
"See there! major!" cried the grenadier.
"Adieu!" said a woman's voice.
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