| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: You move, are warm, within them, laugh within them,
Proud of their depth and strength; or sally from them,
When you are bold, to blow great horns at the world. .
This deep cool room, with shadowed walls and ceiling,
Tranquil and cloistral, fragrant of my mind,
This cool room says,--just such a room have you,
It waits you always at the tops of stairways,
Withdrawn, remote, familiar to your uses,
Where you may cease pretence and be yourself. . . .
And this embroidery, hanging on this wall,
Hung there forever,--these so soundless glidings
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: they're the kind you like."
They spent half an hour at the flat, with Hugh. She was
flustered, but he gave no sign of kissing her again.
As he moved about the small rooms she realized that he
had had his new tan shoes polished to a brassy luster. There
was a recent cut on his chin. He must have shaved on the
train just before coming into Washington.
It was pleasant to feel how important she was, how many
people she recognized, as she took him to the Capitol, as she
told him (he asked and she obligingly guessed) how many
feet it was to the top of the dome, as she pointed out Senator
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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 Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: they secretly bury it, and perhaps this is the reason
they alone know where to find it. The nomes were ruled,
at the time of which I write, by a King named Kaliko.
King Gos had expected to be pursued by Inga in his
magic boat, so he made all the haste possible, urging
his forty rowers to their best efforts night and day.
To his joy he was not overtaken but landed on the sandy
beach of the Wheelers on the morning of the eighth day.
The forty rowers were left with the boat, while Queen
Cor and King Cos, with their royal prisoners, who were
still chained, began the journey to the Nome King.
Rinkitink In Oz |
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: and begged me to conceal the child."
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"That is what I thought," declared Glinda, calmly. "What did he give you for
thus serving him?"
"He taught me all the magical tricks he knew. Some were good tricks, and
some were only frauds; but I have remained faithful to my promise."
"What did you do with the girl?" asked Glinda; and at this question everyone
bent forward and listened eagerly for the reply.
"I enchanted her," answered Mombi.
"In what way?"
"I transformed her into -- into -- "
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
