| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: that far angel-voices would break its breathless hush, as once on
the fields of Judea, to usher in Christmas morn? A hush, in air,
and earth, and sky, of waiting hope, of a promised joy. Down
there in the farm-window two human hearts had given the joy a
name; the hope throbbed into being; the hearts touching each
other beat in a slow, full chord of love as pure in God's eyes as
the song the angels sang, and as sure a promise of the Christ
that is to come. Forever,--not even death would part them; he
knew that, holding her closer, looking down into her face.
What a pale little face it was! Through the intensest heat of
his passion the sting touched him. Some instinct made her glance
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: Dorothy fairly gasped with wonder to see the thing grow so speedily
before her eyes, and both Button-Bright and Polly looked on with the
same absorbed interest.
"It ought to be painted," said Johnny Dooit, tossing his tools back
into the chest, "for that would make it look prettier. But 'though I
can paint it for you in three seconds it would take an hour to dry,
and that's a waste of time."
"We don't care how it looks," said the shaggy man, "if only it will
take us across the desert."
"It will do that," declared Johnny Dooit. "All you need worry about
is tipping over. Did you ever sail a ship?"
The Road to Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: expression, that you were wanting in common sense, but never in
goodness. You are too penetrating not to know that if either of us
has cause to envy the other, it is certainly not you that has cause
to envy me.
The following year he wrote a letter to my father which, it
seems to me, is a key to the understanding of Turgénieff's
attitude toward him:
You write that you are very glad you did not follow my advice
and become a pure man of letters. I don't deny it; perhaps you are
right. Still, batter my poor brains as I may, I cannot imagine
what else you are if you are not a man of letters. A soldier? A
|
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 Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: his country, when he reads in the newspapers,
``Yesterday, died, much lamented,
the famous Mr. Powell. He was the best,
if not the only, fire-eater in the world, and
it is greatly to be feared that his art is
dead with him.''
After a couple of columns more in a similar
strain, the correspondent signs himself
Philopyraphagus Ashburniensis.
In his History of Inventions, Vol. III, page
272, 1817 edition, Beckmann thus describes the
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
