| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the bell?" inquired Dorothy
"Yes. The people are calling to one another in alarm
and many footsteps are approaching the place where we
will reach the flat top of the mountain."
This made Dorothy feel somewhat anxious. "I'd thought
we were going to visit just common, ordinary people,"
she remarked, "but they're pretty clever, it seems, and
they know some kinds of magic, too. They may be
dangerous, Ozma. P'raps we'd better stayed at home."
Finally the upstairs-and-downstairs passage seemed
coming to an end, for daylight again appeared ahead of
Glinda of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: cavalry appeared on the right. He dared not continue in
that direction. The horsemen advanced rapidly, and it
would have been difficult to escape them.
Suddenly, in a thick clump of trees, he saw an isolated
house, which it would be possible to reach before he was
perceived. Michael had no choice but to run there, hide
himself and ask or take something to recruit his strength,
for he was exhausted with hunger and fatigue.
He accordingly ran on towards this house, still about half
a verst distant. As he approached, he could see that it
was a telegraph office. Two wires left it in westerly and
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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 Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: illusion, cultivating an imaginary genius, and walking to the
strains of some deceiving Ariel; small wonder, indeed, if we were
happy! But art, of whatever nature, is a kind mistress; and though
these dreams of youth fall by their own baselessness, others
succeed, graver and more substantial; the symptoms change, the
amiable malady endures; and still, at an equal distance, the House
Beautiful shines upon its hill-top.
V
Gretz lies out of the forest, down by the bright river. It boasts
a mill, an ancient church, a castle, and a bridge of many
sterlings. And the bridge is a piece of public property;
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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 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: permitted by the Bible, it does not in itself involve
any sin; but that every Christian is authorised by
the Divine Law to own slaves, provided they were
not treated with unnecessary cruelty.
The Rev. Orville Dewey, D.D., of the Unitarian
connexion, maintained in his lectures that the
safety of the Union is not to be hazarded for the
sake of the African race. He declares that, for
his part, he would send his own brother or child
into slavery, if needed to preserve the Union
between the free and the slaveholding States; and,
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
