| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: to the farm-house. Finally, when Dorothy had begun to tire with
chasing after him, Toto sat down panting beside the shaggy man and
gave up.
Dorothy sat down, too, very thoughtful. The little girl had
encountered some queer adventures since she came to live at the farm;
but this was the queerest of them all. To get lost in fifteen minutes,
so near to her home and in the unromantic State of Kansas, was an
experience that fairly bewildered her.
"Will your folks worry?" asked the shaggy man, his eyes twinkling in
a pleasant way.
"I s'pose so," answered Dorothy with a sigh. "Uncle Henry says
 The Road to Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: art of dentistry did signal service to the cause of justice.
In his lifetime Dr. Parkman was a well-known figure in the
streets of Boston. His peculiar personal appearance and
eccentric habits combined to make him something of a character.
As he walked through the streets he presented a remarkable
appearance. He was exceptionally tall, longer in the body than
the legs; his lower jaw protruded some half an inch beyond the
upper; he carried his body bent forward from the small of his
back. He seemed to be always in a hurry; so impetuous was he
that, if his horse did not travel fast enough to please him, he
would get off its back, and, leaving the steed in the middle of
 A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: "Let us visit them to-morrow," said Nekayah. "I have often heard
of the Pyramids, and shall not rest till I have seen them, within
and without, with my own eyes."
CHAPTER XXXI - THEY VISIT THE PYRAMIDS.
THE resolution being thus taken, they set out the next day. They
laid tents upon their camels, being resolved to stay among the
Pyramids till their curiosity was fully satisfied. They travelled
gently, turned aside to everything remarkable, stopped from time to
time and conversed with the inhabitants, and observed the various
appearances of towns ruined and inhabited, of wild and cultivated
nature.
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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 Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Court-favour: here and there the small bright head,
A light of healing, glanced about the couch,
Or through the parted silks the tender face
Peeped, shining in upon the wounded man
With blush and smile, a medicine in themselves
To wile the length from languorous hours, and draw
The sting from pain; nor seemed it strange that soon
He rose up whole, and those fair charities
Joined at her side; nor stranger seemed that hears
So gentle, so employed, should close in love,
Than when two dewdrops on the petals shake
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