| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: returned Flossie; "so hold fast, friend Claus!"
Claus held fast and the next moment was flying so swiftly over the
snow that he could not see the trees as they whirled past. Up hill
and down dale, swift as an arrow shot from a bow they dashed, and
Claus shut his eyes to keep the wind out of them and left the deer to
find their own way.
It seemed to him they were plunging through space, but he was not at
all afraid. The Knooks were severe masters, and must be obeyed at all
hazards, and the gray streak in the sky was growing brighter every moment.
Finally the sledge came to a sudden stop and Claus, who was taken
unawares, tumbled from his seat into a snowdrift. As he picked
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: to him, for it seemed as if it was `im as they was hirritated at.
He `ad white kid gloves on `is `ands, and he pointed out the animiles
to me and says, `Keeper, these wolves seem upset at something.'
"`Maybe it's you,' says I, for I did not like the airs as he give
`isself. He didn't get angry, as I `oped he would, but he smiled
a kind of insolent smile, with a mouth full of white, sharp teeth.
`Oh no, they wouldn't like me,' `e says.
" `Ow yes, they would,' says I, a-imitatin'of him.`They always
like a bone or two to clean their teeth on about tea time,
which you `as a bagful.'
"Well, it was a odd thing, but when the animiles see us a-talkin'
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: prance past the hotel after supper had the Atlantic City board walk
looking like a back alley on a rainy night. Well, everything had
sort of shriveled up just like that. The popcorn gave me
indigestion, and I burned the skin off my nose popping it.
Kneading bread gave me the backache, and the blamed stuff wouldn't
raise right. I got so I was crazy to hear the roar of an L train,
and the sound of a crossing policeman's whistle. I got to thinking
how Michigan Avenue looks, downtown, with the lights shining down
on the asphalt, and all those people eating in the swell hotels,
and the autos, and the theater crowds and the windows, and--well,
I'm back. Glad I went? You said it. Because it made me so darned
Buttered Side Down |
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 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: slowly in a continuous and perfumed stream; and over them, under
them, in the sleeping water; all around them in a ring of
luxuriant vegetation bathed in the warm air charged with strong
and harsh perfumes, the intense work of tropical nature went on:
plants shooting upward, entwined, interlaced in inextricable
confusion, climbing madly and brutally over each other in the
terrible silence of a desperate struggle towards the life-giving
sunshine above--as if struck with sudden horror at the seething
mass of corruption below, at the death and decay from which they
sprang.
"We must part now," said Dain, after a long silence. "You must
Almayer's Folly |
