| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: then only, may the beloved yield with honour to the lover. Nor when love
is of this disinterested sort is there any disgrace in being deceived, but
in every other case there is equal disgrace in being or not being deceived.
For he who is gracious to his lover under the impression that he is rich,
and is disappointed of his gains because he turns out to be poor, is
disgraced all the same: for he has done his best to show that he would
give himself up to any one's 'uses base' for the sake of money; but this is
not honourable. And on the same principle he who gives himself to a lover
because he is a good man, and in the hope that he will be improved by his
company, shows himself to be virtuous, even though the object of his
affection turn out to be a villain, and to have no virtue; and if he is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: uncommon spread of ear, which some naturalists contend gave him the
power of flight, though Professors Morse and Whitney, pursuing
independent lines of thought, have ingeniously pointed out that had he
possessed it he would have gone elsewhere. In the picturesque speech
of his period, some fragments of which have come down to us, he was
known as "The Matter with Kansas."
PORTABLE, adj. Exposed to a mutable ownership through vicissitudes of
possession.
His light estate, if neither he did make it
Nor yet its former guardian forsake it,
Is portable improperly, I take it.
The Devil's Dictionary |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "She's a dear little thing, and I'm sure nothing very
bad will happen to her. The old sailor is a fine
character, too, for he has never once grumbled over being
a grasshopper, as so many would have done."
When the Scarecrow was so nearly burned up the girls
all shivered a little, and they clapped their hands in
joy when the flock of Orks came and saved him.
So it was that when all the exciting adventures in
Jinxland were over and the four Orks had begun their
flight across the mountains to carry the mortals into the
Land of Oz, Ozma called the Wizard to her and asked him
The Scarecrow 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 Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: for his address--who could it possibly be?--and looked so damped by
my humourous suggestion that it was a friend of Kauffer's in some
other line who wanted a bill paid, that I felt I had been guilty of
brutality. And all the while the quality of his wonderful output
never changed or abated. Pure and firm and prismatic it remained.
I found him one day at the very end of October, with shining eyes
and fingers blue with cold, putting the last of the afternoon light
on the snows into one of the most dramatic hill pictures I ever knew
him to do. He seemed intoxicated with his skill, and hummed the
'Marseillaise,' I remember, all the way to Amy Villa whither I
accompanied him.
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