| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: mortal years without attaining more than a far-off glimpse of
the very highest joy. Were this life all, its very happiness
were sadness. If, as I doubt not, there be another sphere,
then that which is unfulfilled in this must yet find
completion, nothing omitted, nothing denied. And though a
thousand oracles should pronounce this thought an idle dream,
neither Hope nor I would believe them.
It was a radiant morning of last February when I walked across
the low hills to the scene of the wreck. Leaving the road
before reaching the Fort, I struck across the wild
moss-country, full of boulders and footpaths and stunted cedars
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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 Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: adventure, so she greeted the royal family cordially; and all the
visitors were delighted to meet the little Kansas girl again. They
knew Tik-tok and Billina, too, and the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman,
as well as the Lion and Tiger; so there was a joyful reunion, as you
may imagine, and it was fully an hour before the Queen and her train
retired to their rooms. Perhaps they would not have gone then had not
the band begun to play to announce new arrivals; but before they left
the great Throne-Room King Evardo added to Ozma's birthday presents a
diadem of diamonds set in radium.
The next comer proved to be King Renard of Foxville; or King Dox, as
he preferred to be called. He was magnificently dressed in a new
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 The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: After intense contemplation of the immaculate Gibbon Mr. Hirst
smiled at the question of his friend. He laid aside his book
and considered.
"I should call yours a singularly untidy mind," he observed.
"Feelings? Aren't they just what we do allow for? We put love
up there, and all the rest somewhere down below." With his left
hand he indicated the top of a pyramid, and with his right the base.
"But you didn't get out of bed to tell me that," he added severely.
"I got out of bed," said Hewet vaguely, "merely to talk I suppose."
"Meanwhile I shall undress," said Hirst. When naked of all but
his shirt, and bent over the basin, Mr. Hirst no longer impressed
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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 Adieu by Honore de Balzac: capricious destruction. The silken curtains beside the windows were
torn, while those of muslin remained intact.
"You see," said the tall old man, as they entered, "the ravages
committed by that dear creature, to whom I devote myself. She is my
niece; in spite of the impotence of my art, I hope some day to restore
her reason by attempting a method which can only be employed,
unfortunately, by very rich people."
Then, like all persons living in solitude who are afflicted with an
ever present and ever renewed grief, he related to the marquis at
length the following narrative, which is here condensed, and relieved
of the many digressions made by both the narrator and the listener.
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