| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: it; a scruple in her that immensely touched him when, by the end of
three or four minutes more, he was able to measure it. What she
brought out, at any rate, quite cleared the air and supplied the
link--the link it was so odd he should frivolously have managed to
lose.
"You know you told me something I've never forgotten and that again
and again has made me think of you since; it was that tremendously
hot day when we went to Sorrento, across the bay, for the breeze.
What I allude to was what you said to me, on the way back, as we
sat under the awning of the boat enjoying the cool. Have you
forgotten?"
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: taken by a fit, and exclaimed, "Bless my soul!
there goes my nigger, Ned!"
My master said, "No; that is my boy."
The lady paid no attention to this; she poked
her head out of the window, and bawled to me,
"You Ned, come to me, sir, you runaway rascal!"
On my looking round she drew her head in, and
said to my master, "I beg your pardon, sir, I was
sure it was my nigger; I never in my life saw two
black pigs more alike than your boy and my
Ned."
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: poetry, it was against the claims of the understanding that an
artist like Goethe had to protest. 'The more incomprehensible to
the understanding a poem is the better for it,' he said once,
asserting the complete supremacy of the imagination in poetry as of
reason in prose. But in this century it is rather against the
claims of the emotional faculties, the claims of mere sentiment and
feeling, that the artist must react. The simple utterance of joy
is not poetry any more than a mere personal cry of pain, and the
real experiences of the artist are always those which do not find
their direct expression but are gathered up and absorbed into some
artistic form which seems, from such real experiences, to be the
|
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 Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: powerful Sorceress in the world, and there are few
things she cannot do if she tries."
"In that case," said the Little Brown Bear, "let us
return southward and try to get to Glinda's castle. It
lies in the Quadling Country, you know, so it is a good
way from here."
"First, however, let us visit the forest and search
for something to eat," pleaded Woot. So they continued
on to the edge of the forest, which consisted of many
tall and beautiful trees. They discovered no fruit
trees, at first, so the Green Monkey pushed on into the
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
