| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: cleanliness, which was all the more visible because the pure and
little changing light from the north flooded with its cold clear beams
the vast apartment. Fougeres, being merely a genre painter, does not
need the immense machinery and outfit which ruin historical painters;
he has never recognized within himself sufficient faculty to attempt
high-art, and he therefore clings to easel painting.
At the beginning of the month of December of that year, a season at
which the bourgeois of Paris conceive, periodically, the burlesque
idea of perpetuating their forms and figures already too bulky in
themselves, Pierre Grassou, who had risen early, prepared his palette,
and lighted his stove, was eating a roll steeped in milk, and waiting
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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 Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: Don't go away from me. I couldn't bear it. Oh! don't go away
from me. My brother . . . No; never mind. He didn't mean it.
He was in jest. . . . But you, oh! can't you forgive me for
to-night? I will work so hard and try to improve. Don't be cruel
to me, because I love you better than anything in the world.
After all, it is only once that I have not pleased you.
But you are quite right, Dorian. I should have shown
myself more of an artist. It was foolish of me, and yet I
couldn't help it. Oh, don't leave me, don't leave me."
A fit of passionate sobbing choked her. She crouched on
the floor like a wounded thing, and Dorian Gray, with his
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: "You have made me very, very happy, my dear!" he exclaimed; and then
he insisted on the Wizard taking the box of flutters and the little
girl accepting the box of rustles.
"You may need them, some time," he said, "and there is really no use
in my manufacturing these things unless somebody uses them."
"Why did you leave the surface of the earth?" enquired the Wizard.
"I could not help it. It is a sad story, but if you will try to
restrain your tears I will tell you about it. On earth I was a
manufacturer of Imported Holes for American Swiss Cheese, and I will
acknowledge that I supplied a superior article, which was in great
demand. Also I made pores for porous plasters and high-grade holes
Dorothy and the Wizard in 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 Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: duty on board of the floating light was literally nothing but
a waiting on, and therefore one of her boats, with a crew of
five men, daily attended the rock, but always returned to the
vessel at night. The carpenter, however, was one of those who
was left on board of the ship, as he also acted in the
capacity of assistant lightkeeper, being, besides, a person
who was apt to feel discontent and to be averse to changing
his quarters, especially to work with the millwrights and
joiners at the rock, who often, for hours together, wrought
knee-deep, and not unfrequently up to the middle, in water.
Mr. Watt having about this time made a requisition for another
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