| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: whose effusions entranced my soul and lifted it to heaven. I also
became a poet and for one year lived in a paradise of my own creation;
I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple where the
names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated. You are well acquainted
with my failure and how heavily I bore the disappointment. But just at
that time I inherited the fortune of my cousin, and my thoughts were
turned into the channel of their earlier bent.
Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking.
I can, even now, remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to
this great enterprise. I commenced by inuring my body to hardship.
I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea;
 Frankenstein |
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 Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: no mark upon its surface. The ceremony was ended and
Glinda returned the skeropythrope to the Wizard, who
put it away in his black bag.
"That ought to do the business all right," he said
confidently
"Let us make a trial and see," she replied.
So they both entered the boat and seated themselves.
Speaking in a tone of command the Sorceress said to
the boat: "Carry us across the lake, to the farther
shore."
At once the boat backed off the sandy beach, turned
 Glinda of Oz |