| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: brook like a charge of red lancers. Spears of flame led the advance. The
flame licked up the dry surface-grass and brush, and, meeting the pines,
circled them in a whirlwind of fire, like lightning flashing upward. Then
came prolonged reports, and after that a long, blistering roar in the
tree-tops. Even as I gazed, appalled in the certainty of a horrible fate, I
thrilled at the grand spectacle. Fire had always fascinated me. The clang
of the engines and the call of "Fire!" would tear me from any task or play.
But I had never known what fire was. I knew now. Storms of air and sea were
nothing compared to this. It was the greatest force in nature. It was fire.
On one hand, I seemed cool and calculated the chances; on the other, I had
flashes in my brain, and kept crying out crazily, in a voice like a
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: admire the noble Grandeur of the Elms which sheltered us from the
Eastern Zephyr. "Alas! my Laura (returned she) avoid so
melancholy a subject, I intreat you. Do not again wound my
Sensibility by observations on those elms. They remind me of
Augustus. He was like them, tall, magestic--he possessed that
noble grandeur which you admire in them."
I was silent, fearfull lest I might any more unwillingly distress
her by fixing on any other subject of conversation which might
again remind her of Augustus.
"Why do you not speak my Laura? (said she after a short pause)
"I cannot support this silence you must not leave me to my own
Love and Friendship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: the mob were dispersed from end to end, and busy at their work, he
took a bundle of keys from a kind of cupboard in the wall, and
going by a kind of passage near the chapel (it joined the governors
house, and was then on fire), betook himself to the condemned
cells, which were a series of small, strong, dismal rooms, opening
on a low gallery, guarded, at the end at which he entered, by a
strong iron wicket, and at its opposite extremity by two doors and
a thick grate. Having double locked the wicket, and assured
himself that the other entrances were well secured, he sat down on
a bench in the gallery, and sucked the head of his stick with the
utmost complacency, tranquillity, and contentment.
Barnaby Rudge |
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 Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: her about this idea, she replied: "Why, haven't you
heard?" I said "No." "Well," came the message over
the wireless, "I'll tell you all about it, by and
by, and then you can make a hook of that story for
the children to read."
So, if Dorothy keeps her word and I am permitted
to write another Oz hook, you will probably
discover how all these characters came together in
the famous Emerald City. Meantime, I want to tell
all my little friends--whose numbers are increasing
by many thousands every year--that I am very
Tik-Tok of Oz |
