| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: her into a Golden Pig. The poison was spilled on the
ground and wicked Queen Coo-ee-oh, not content with her
cruel transformation, even took away my wife's four
cans of brains, so she is now a common grunting pig
without even brains enough to know her own name."
"Then," said Ozma thoughtfully, "the Queen of the
Skeezers must be a Sorceress."
"Yes," said the Su-dic, "but she doesn't know much
magic, after all. She is not as powerful as Rora
Flathead was, nor half as powerful as I am now, as
Queen Coo-ee-oh will discover when we fight our great
Glinda of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: arithmeticians reckon unequal units; as for example, two armies, two oxen,
two very large things or two very small things. The party who are opposed
to them insist that every unit in ten thousand must be the same as every
other unit.
PROTARCHUS: Undoubtedly there is, as you say, a great difference among the
votaries of the science; and there may be reasonably supposed to be two
sorts of arithmetic.
SOCRATES: And when we compare the art of mensuration which is used in
building with philosophical geometry, or the art of computation which is
used in trading with exact calculation, shall we say of either of the pairs
that it is one or two?
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: supply himself.
He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all the
while I spoke; nay, I could see in his very face that what I said
put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequently
changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, till it
might be even perceived in his countenance; nor could he
immediately answer me when I had done, and, as it were, hesitated
what he would say to it; but after he had paused a little, he
embraced me, and said, "How unhappy are we, unguarded creatures as
we are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares
unto us, and we are made tempters of one another!" He then
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: knot of wood had fallen out, and a stream of grey light came in through it.
Ah, it was going to end at last. Nothing lasts forever, not even the
night. How was it he had never thought of that before? For in all that
long dark night he had been very strong, had never been tired, never felt
pain, had run on and on, up and down, up and down; he had not dared to
stand still, and he had not known it would end. He had been so strong,
that when he struck his head with all his force upon the stone wall it did
not stun him nor pain him--only made him laugh. That was a dreadful night.
When he clasped his hands frantically and prayed--"O God, my beautiful God,
my sweet God, once, only once, let me feel you near me tonight!" he could
not feel him. He prayed aloud, very loud, and he got no answer; when he
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