| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: a little girl not three years old at the time, ran out
of the house alone in her little white pinafore, and,
toddling across the grass of a terraced garden,
pitched herself over a low wall head first into the
horsepond in the yard below.
"Our man was out with the waggoner and the
plough in the field nearest to the house, and as he
was leading the team round to begin a fresh fur-
row, he saw, through the gap of the gate, what for
anybody else would have been a mere flutter of
something white. But he had straight-glancing,
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: bottom we are all alike and all the same; all just alike on the inside,
and when our clothes are off, nobody can tell which of us is which.
We are unanimous in the pride we take in good and genuine compliments
paid us, and distinctions conferred upon us, in attentions shown.
There is not one of us, from the emperor down,, but is made like that.
Do I mean attentions shown us by the guest? No, I mean simply
flattering attentions, let them come whence they may. We despise
no source that can pay us a pleasing attention--there is no source
that is humble enough for that. You have heard a dear little girl
say to a frowzy and disreputable dog: "He came right to me and let
me pat him on the head, and he wouldn't let the others touch him!"
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: and soft!
And she pulled it over her face, and she laughed and cried for joy--
because she remembered--
But the great grown person who had brought Bessie Bell to the pretty
house said: ``Oh, Bessie Bell! Why, Bessie Bell! For shame, Bessie
Bell! How could you do so to the beautiful peacock-feather-fly-
brush!''
So Bessie Bell could only cry--and that very softly--and feel
ashamed as she was bid, and forget what it was that she remembered.
Bessie Bell might have remembered one time when a great house was
all desolate, and when nobody or nothing at all breathed in the
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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 Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: as many assailants as did the Woodman's axe.
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Finding themselves thus opposed, the birds fell upon the Scarecrow's straw,
which lay at the center of the nest, covering Tip and the Woggle-Bug and
Jack's pumpkin head, and began tearing it away and flying off with it, only
to let it drop, straw by straw into the great gulf beneath.
The Scarecrow's head, noting with dismay this wanton destruction of his
interior, cried to the Tin Woodman to save him; and that good friend
responded with renewed energy. His axe fairly flashed among the Jackdaws,
and fortunately the Gump began wildly waving the two wings remaining on the
left side of its body. The flutter of these great wings filled the Jackdaws
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
