| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: of her lover out of sheer compassion, or to promote a frigid plan
of future comfort, I am disgusted. They may be good women, in the
ordinary acceptation of the phrase, and do no harm; but they appear
to me not to have those 'finely fashioned nerves,' which render
the senses exquisite. They may possess tenderness; but they want
that fire of the imagination, which produces _active_ sensibility,
and _positive_ _virtue_. How does the woman deserve to be
characterized, who marries one man, with a heart and imagination
devoted to another? Is she not an object of pity or contempt, when
thus sacrilegiously violating the purity of her own feelings? Nay,
it is as indelicate, when she is indifferent, unless she be
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: and was drowned."
"Oh, I'm sorry for that!" exclaimed the little girl.
"Mis-ter Tin-ker," continued Tiktok, "made a lad-der so tall that he
could rest the end of it a-gainst the moon, while he stood on the
high-est rung and picked the lit-tle stars to set in the points of the
king's crown. But when he got to the moon Mis-ter Tin-ker found it
such a love-ly place that he de-cid-ed to live there, so he pulled up
the lad-der af-ter him and we have nev-er seen him since."
"He must have been a great loss to this country," said Dorothy, who
was by this time eating her custard pie.
"He was," acknowledged Tiktok. "Also he is a great loss to me. For
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: get gay--and you'll have a hectic time. I'll rough you till you're
shark-food. Get that through your teeth?"
"Yes, sir."
"Now you trot down to the fo'c'sle and dive into them slops you
find there. You got just three minutes to do the dress-suit act."
Jeff, as he passed below, could hear the great bull voice roaring
orders to the men. "Set y'r topsails! Jam 'er down hard, Johnnie
Dago! Stand by, you lubbers! . . . Now then, easy does it . . .
easy!"
Within the allotted three minutes Farnum had climbed into the foul
oilskin coat and tarry breeches he found below and was ready for
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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 Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: and on receipt of the slightest offence, to fell the Black Lion to
the floor of his own parlour, and immediately to withdraw to China
or some other remote and unknown region, there to dwell for
evermore, or at least until he had got rid of his remaining arm and
both legs, and perhaps an eye or so, into the bargain. It was with
a peculiar kind of pantomime that Mr Willet filled up every pause;
and in this he was considered by the Black Lion, who had been his
familiar for some years, quite to surpass and go beyond himself,
and outrun the expectations of his most admiring friends.
The subject that worked in Mr Willet's mind, and occasioned these
demonstrations, was no other than his son's bodily disfigurement,
Barnaby Rudge |
