| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: called the Caprotine Nones, offer a public sacrifice at the Goat's
Marsh, in presence of the senate and people of Rome. Suddenly the sky
was darkened, a thick cloud of storm and rain settled on the earth; the
common people fled in affright, and were dispersed; and in this
whirlwind Romulus disappeared, his body being never found either living
or dead. A foul suspicion presently attached to the patricians, and
rumors were current among the people as if that they, weary of kingly
government, and exasperated of late by the imperious deportment of
Romulus towards them, had plotted against his life and made him away,
that so they might assume the authority and government into their own
hands. This suspicion they sought to turn aside by decreeing divine
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: left Rome behind, the merriment of the party, repressed for a moment
by the battle they had all been fighting against drowsiness, suddenly
awoke. All, men and women alike, seemed accustomed to that strange
life, that constant round of pleasures, that artistic energy, which
makes of life one never ending /fete/, where laughter reigns,
unchecked by fear of the future. The sculptor's companion was the only
one who seemed out of spirits.
" 'Are you ill?' Sarrasine asked her. 'Would you prefer to go home?'
" 'I am not strong enough to stand all this dissipation,' she replied.
'I have to be very careful; but I feel so happy with you! Except for
you, I should not have remained to this supper; a night like this
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: they might rescue their master; and they realized they must discover,
first of all, what had happened to him and where he was.
So Wisk the Fairy transported himself to the bower of the Fairy Queen,
which was located deep in the heart of the Forest of Burzee; and once
there, it did not take him long to find out all about the naughty
Daemons and how they had kidnapped the good Santa Claus to prevent his
making children happy. The Fairy Queen also promised her assistance,
and then, fortified by this powerful support, Wisk flew back to where
Nuter and Peter and Kilter awaited him, and the four counseled
together and laid plans to rescue their master from his enemies.
It is possible that Santa Claus was not as merry as usual during the
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
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 Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: emty, at the end of Act One I put on the pink hat and left it on as
though absent-minded. There was no one behind me. And, although
during Act One I had thought that he perhaps felt my presense, he
had not once looked directly at me.
But the hat captured his erant gaze, as one may say. And, after
capture, it remained on my face, so much so that I flushed and a
woman. sitting near with a very plain girl in a Skunk Coller, observed:
"Realy, it is outragous."
Now came a moment which I thrill even to recolect. For Adrian
plucked a pink rose from a vase--he was in the Milionaire' s house,
and was starving in the midst of luxury--and held it to his lips.
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