| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: floor and then walking around on her hands with her feet in the air.
The High Coco-Lorum watched Scraps admiringly.
"You may go farther
on, of course," said he, "but I advise you not to. The Herkus live
back of us, beyond the thistles and the twisting lands, and they are
not very nice people to meet, I assure you."
"Are they giants?" asked Betsy.
"They are worse than that," was the reply. "They have giants for
their slaves and they are so much stronger than giants that the poor
slaves dare not rebel for fear of being torn to pieces."
"How do you know?" asked Scraps.
The Lost Princess of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: the parapet of a horn-work at the siege of Namur, which struck full upon my
uncle Toby's groin.--Which way could that effect it? The story of that,
Madam, is long and interesting;--but it would be running my history all
upon heaps to give it you here.--'Tis for an episode hereafter; and every
circumstance relating to it, in its proper place, shall be faithfully laid
before you:--'Till then, it is not in my power to give farther light into
this matter, or say more than what I have said already,--That my uncle Toby
was a gentleman of unparallel'd modesty, which happening to be somewhat
subtilized and rarified by the constant heat of a little family pride,--
they both so wrought together within him, that he could never bear to hear
the affair of my aunt Dinah touch'd upon, but with the greatest emotion.--
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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 Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: towards him like biting adders, trifling with the happiness of this
young life, like a princess accustomed to play with objects more
precious than a simple knight. In fact, her husband risked the whole
kingdom as you would a penny at piquet. Finally it was only three days
since, at the conclusion of vespers, that the constable's wife pointed
out to the queen this follower of love, said laughingly--
"There's a man of quality."
This sentence remained in the fashionable language. Later it became a
custom so to designate the people of the court. It was to the wife of
the constable d'Armagnac, and to no other source, that the French
language is indebted for this charming expression.
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: them; and the Mussulmans began to put the Koran in the place of Him of
whom the Koran spoke. They began to worship the book--which after all
is not a book, but only an irregular collection of Mohammed's
meditations, and notes for sermons--with the most slavish and ridiculous
idolatry. They fell into a cabbalism, and a superstitious reverence for
the mere letters and words of the Koran, to which the cabbalism of the
old Rabbis was moderate and rational. They surrounded it, and the
history of Mohammed, with all ridiculous myths, and prodigies, and lying
wonders, whereof the book itself contained not a word; and which
Mohammed, during his existence, had denied and repudiated, saying that
he worked no miracles, and that none were needed; because only reason
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