| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: Thatchers were there, the Harpers, the Rogerses, Aunt
Polly, Sid, Mary, the minister, the editor, and a great
many more, and all dressed in their best. The widow
received the boys as heartily as any one could well
receive two such looking beings. They were covered
with clay and candle-grease. Aunt Polly blushed
crimson with humiliation, and frowned and shook her
head at Tom. Nobody suffered half as much as the
two boys did, however. Mr. Jones said:
"Tom wasn't at home, yet, so I gave him up; but
I stumbled on him and Huck right at my door, and so
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because
of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe
to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose
that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the
providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he
gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due
to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently
do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Second Inaugural Address |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: find a secret place. He wandered all over the Saucer at the top of
Mount Munch, but found no place in which to write the secret word
where others might not be likely to stumble upon it. So finally he
decided it must be written somewhere in his own house.
Bini Aru had a wife named Mopsi Aru who was famous for making fine
huckleberry pies, and he had a son named Kiki Aru who was not famous
at all. He was noted as being cross and disagreeable because he was
not happy, and he was not happy because he wanted to go down the
mountain and visit the big world below and his father would not let
him. No one paid any attention to Kiki Aru, because he didn't amount
to anything, anyway.
The Magic of 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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: when the ship sailed a week before. Now some twenty were dead,
which was a small number, since the Spaniards reckon to lose from a
third to half of their cargo in this devilish traffic. When I
entered the place a deadly sickness seized me, weak as I was,
brought on by the horrible sounds and smells, and the sights that I
saw in the flare of the lanterns which my conductors carried, for
the hold was shut off from light and air. But they dragged me
along and presently I found myself chained in the midst of a line
of black men and women, many feet resting in the bilge water.
There the Spaniards left me with a jeer, saying that this was too
good a bed for an Englishman to lie on. For a while I endured,
Montezuma's Daughter |
