| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: to Jinxland riding on a big bird, and who has had the
misfortune to lose her friend, Cap'n Bill, and her chum,
Button-Bright."
"Why, how did you know all that?" she inquired.
"I know a lot of things," replied the Scarecrow,
winking at her comically. "My brains are the Carefully-
Assorted, Double-Distilled, High-Efficiency sort that the
Wizard of Oz makes. He admits, himself, that my brains
are the best he ever manufactured."
"I think I've heard of you," said Trot slowly, as she
looked the Scarecrow over with much interest; "but you
The Scarecrow of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
For thou art covetous, and he is kind;
He learn'd but surety-like to write for me,
Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou usurer, that putt'st forth all to use,
And sue a friend came debtor for my sake;
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me:
He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
CXXXV
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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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: "I shall not be poor if I lose; if I gain, Margaret will be
rich."
"'Margaret will be rich,'" he repeated, absently.
"What! have you changed your mind respecting the orphans, aunt?"
"She has, and is--nothing," she went on, not heeding my remark.
"Her father married below his station; when he died his wife fell
back to her place--for he spent his fortune--and there she and
Margaret must remain, unless Lemorne is defeated."
"Aunt, for your succinct biography of my position many thanks."
"Sixty thousand dollars," she continued. "Van Horn tells me that,
as yet, the firm of Uxbridge Brothers have only an income--no
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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 The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: Duc de Maufrigneuse, early in life, had had relations with the
Duchesse d'Uxelles. About the year 1814, when Monsieur de Maufrigneuse
was forty-six years of age, the duchess, pitying his poverty, and
seeing that he stood very well at court, gave him her daughter Diane,
then in her seventeenth year, and possessing, in her own right, some
fifty or sixty thousand francs a year, not counting her future
expectations. Mademoiselle d'Uxelles thus became a duchess, and, as
her mother very well knew, she enjoyed the utmost liberty. The duke,
after obtaining the unexpected happiness of an heir, left his wife
entirely to her own devices, and went off to amuse himself in the
various garrisons of France, returning occasionally to Paris, where he
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