| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: this familiarity and with a sudden kick pounded
the Woozy squarely on its Lead with one gold-shod
foot.
"Take that, you monster!" it cried angrily.
The Woozy never even winked.
"To be sure," he said; "I'll take anything I
have to. But don't make me angry, you wooden
beast, or my eyes will flash fire and burn you
up."
The Sawhorse rolled its knot eyes wickedly
and kicked again, but the Woozy trotted away
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: instilled a strangely penetrating power into the
sound of the most familiar English words, as if
they had been the words of an unearthly language.
And he always would come to an end, with many
emphatic shakes of his head, upon that awful sen-
sation of his heart melting within him directly he
set foot on board that ship. Afterwards there
seemed to come for him a period of blank ignorance,
at any rate as to facts. No doubt he must have
been abominably sea-sick and abominably unhappy
--this soft and passionate adventurer, taken thus
Amy Foster |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: know now! In short, say nothing to Marguerite, and bring her back
to Paris. You have lived with her alone for four or five months;
that is quite enough. Shut your eyes now; that is all that any
one asks of you. At the end of a fortnight she will take the
Comte de N., and she will save up during the winter, and next
summer you will begin over again. That is how things are done, my
dear fellow!"
And Prudence appeared to be enchanted with her advice, which I
refused indignantly.
Not only my love and my dignity would not let me act thus, but I
was certain that, feeling as she did now, Marguerite would die
Camille |
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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: of course wages) increase going on to a limitless extent. Many
people are inclined to look to such an increase in prices as a
certain outcome of the war, and just so far as it goes, just so
far will the burthen of the /rentier/ class, their call, tat
is, for goods and services, be lightened. This expectation is
very generally entertained, and I can see little reason against
it. The intensely stupid or dishonest "labour" press, however,
which in the interests of the common enemy misrepresents
socialism and seeks to misguide labour in Great Britain, ignores
these considerations, and positively holds out this prospect of
rising prices as an alarming one to the more credulous and
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