| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: situation, so repulsive was her face to almost every one. Yet the
feeling was certainly unjust: the face would have been much admired on
the shoulders of a grenadier of the guard; but all things, so they
say, should be in keeping. Forced to leave a farm where she kept the
cows, because the dwelling-house was burned down, she came to Saumur
to find a place, full of the robust courage that shrinks from no
labor. Le Pere Grandet was at that time thinking of marriage and about
to set up his household. He espied the girl, rejected as she was from
door to door. A good judge of corporeal strength in his trade as a
cooper, he guessed the work that might be got out of a female creature
shaped like a Hercules, as firm on her feet as an oak sixty years old
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: in both the Saw-Horse and his man Jack; "but permit me to say that your joke
is a poor one, and as old as it is poor."
160
"Still, it is a Joke," declared the Woggle-Bug; firmly, "and a Joke derived
from a play upon words is considered among educated people to be eminently
proper."
"What does that mean?" enquired the Pumpkinhead, stupidly.
"It means, my dear friend," explained the Woggle-Bug, "that our language
contains many words having a double meaning; and that to pronounce a joke
that allows both meanings of a certain word, proves the joker a person of
culture and refinement, who has, moreover, a thorough command of the
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: that they may. For that is at the north parts that men clepe the
Septentrional where it is all only cold. For the sun is but little
or none toward those countries. And therefore in the Septentrion,
that is very north, is the land so cold, that no man may dwell
there. And, in the contrary, toward the south it is so hot, that
no man ne may dwell there, because that the sun, when he is upon
the south, casteth his beams all straight upon that part.
CHAPTER XV
OF THE CUSTOMS OF SARACENS, AND OF THEIR LAW. AND HOW THE SOLDAN
REASONED ME, AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK; AND OF THE BEGINNING OF MOHAMMET
NOW, because that I have spoken of Saracens and of their country -
|
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 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: our grain, so that you may not suffer want! And if you have been
told that I am giving you the grain to keep you here- that is not
true. On the contrary, I ask you to go with all your belongings to our
estate near Moscow, and I promise you I will see to it that there
you shall want for nothing. You shall be given food and lodging."
The princess stopped. Sighs were the only sound heard in the crowd.
"I am not doing this on my own account," she continued, "I do it
in the name of my dead father, who was a good master to you, and of my
brother and his son."
Again she paused. No one broke the silence.
"Ours is a common misfortune and we will share it together. All that
War and Peace |
