| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour,
dark lank hair, and strong features--so much for her person;
and not less unpropiteous for heroism seemed her mind.
She was fond of all boy's plays, and greatly preferred
cricket not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic
enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a
canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. Indeed she had no
taste for a garden; and if she gathered flowers at all,
it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief--at least so it
was conjectured from her always preferring those which she
was forbidden to take. Such were her propensities--her
Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: would differ from their former state, in a nearly uniform, though perhaps
extremely slight degree, they would, according to the principles followed
by many palaeontologists, be ranked as new and distinct species.
If then, there be some degree of truth in these remarks, we have no right
to expect to find in our geological formations, an infinite number of those
fine transitional forms, which on my theory assuredly have connected all
the past and present species of the same group into one long and branching
chain of life. We ought only to look for a few links, some more closely,
some more distantly related to each other; and these links, let them be
ever so close, if found in different stages of the same formation, would,
by most palaeontologists, be ranked as distinct species. But I do not
On the Origin of Species |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: The Baroness kept all the keener watch over her daughter, because she
considered her honor as a mother to be at stake. After all, she had
nothing else to do. Clotilde de Rupt, at this time five-and-thirty,
and as good as widowed, with a husband who turned egg-cups in every
variety of wood, who set his mind on making wheels with six spokes out
of iron-wood, and manufactured snuff-boxes for everyone of his
acquaintance, flirted in strict propriety with Amedee de Soulas. When
this young man was in the house, she alternately dismissed and
recalled her daughter, and tried to detect symptoms of jealousy in
that youthful soul, so as to have occasion to repress them. She
imitated the police in its dealings with the republicans; but she
Albert Savarus |
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 Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the southeast of your country."
"And the Frogman, is he also a Yip?"
"I do not know what he is, other than a very remarkable and highly
educated creature," replied the Cookie Cook. "But he has lived many
years among the Yips, who have found him so wise and intelligent that
they always go to him for advice."
"May I ask why you have left your home and where you are going?" said
the Winkie woman.
Then Cayke told her of the diamond-studded gold dishpan and how it had
been mysteriously stolen from her house, after which she had
discovered that she could no longer cook good cookies. So she had
The Lost Princess of Oz |
