| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: government offices but idlers, incapables, or fools. Thus the
mediocrity of French administration has slowly come about.
Bureaucracy, made up entirely of petty minds, stands as an obstacle to
the prosperity of the nation; delays for seven years, by its
machinery, the project of a canal which would have stimulated the
production of a province; is afraid of everything, prolongs
procrastination, and perpetuates the abuses which in turn perpetuate
and consolidate itself. Bureaucracy holds all things and the
administration itself in leading strings; it stifles men of talent who
are bold enough to be independent of it or to enlighten it on its own
follies. About the time of which we write the pension list had just
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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 Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: destroyed; so, as I said, only peace and happiness reigned in Oz.
For some time Ozma had ruled over this fair country, and never was
Ruler more popular or beloved. She is said to be the most beautiful
girl the world has ever known, and her heart and mind are as lovely as
her person.
Dorothy Gale had several times visited the Emerald City
and experienced adventures in the Land of Oz, so that she and Ozma had
now become firm friends. The girl Ruler had even made Dorothy a
Princess of Oz, and had often implored her to come to Ozma's stately
palace and live there always; but Dorothy had been loyal to her Aunt
Em and Uncle Henry, who had cared for her since she was a baby, and
The Emerald City of Oz |
