The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: nettled by his politeness as she might have been by an impertinence,
began talking to her brother in a louder voice than good taste
enjoined; she turned and tossed her head, gesticulated eagerly, and
laughed for no particular reason, less to amuse her brother than to
attract the attention of the imperturbable stranger. None of her
little arts succeeded. Mademoiselle de Fontaine then followed the
direction in which his eyes were fixed, and discovered the cause of
his indifference.
In the midst of the quadrille, close in front of them, a pale girl was
dancing; her face was like one of the divinities which Girodet has
introduced into his immense composition of French Warriors received by
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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 Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Oh, I am a ventriloquist," said the little man. "I can throw
the sound of my voice wherever I wish, so that you thought it was
coming out of the Head. Here are the other things I used to
deceive you." He showed the Scarecrow the dress and the mask he
had worn when he seemed to be the lovely Lady. And the Tin
Woodman saw that his terrible Beast was nothing but a lot of
skins, sewn together, with slats to keep their sides out. As for
the Ball of Fire, the false Wizard had hung that also from the
ceiling. It was really a ball of cotton, but when oil was poured
upon it the ball burned fiercely.
"Really," said the Scarecrow, "you ought to be ashamed of
The Wizard of Oz |