| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: shadow and moon-glimpse over the surface of the shuddering water. I
had to hold my hat on, and was growing rather tired, and inclined to
go back in disgust, when a little incident occurred to break the
tedium. A sudden and violent squall of wind sundered the low
underwood, and at the same time there came one of those brief
discharges of moonlight, which leaped into the opening thus made, and
showed me three girls in the prettiest flutter and disorder. It was
as though they had sprung out of the ground. I accosted them very
politely in my capacity of stranger, and requested to be told the
names of all manner of hills and woods and places that I did not wish
to know, and we stood together for a while and had an amusing little
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: address to Mr. Pinhorn, breaking, as it were, with Mr. Pinhorn. Of
course, however, the next minute the voice of THE EMPIRE was in my
ears.
The article wasn't, I thanked heaven, a review; it was a "leader,"
the last of three, presenting Neil Paraday to the human race. His
new book, the fifth from his hand, had been but a day or two out,
and THE EMPIRE, already aware of it, fired, as if on the birth of a
prince, a salute of a whole column. The guns had been booming
these three hours in the house without our suspecting them. The
big blundering newspaper had discovered him, and now he was
proclaimed and anointed and crowned. His place was assigned him as
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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 The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: "Well, after dinner we will tell sundry little anecdotes of wives
caught out by their husbands, killed, murdered under the most terrible
circumstances.--Then we shall see the faces that Madame de la Baudraye
and de Clagny will make."
"Not amiss!" said Bianchon; "one or the other must surely, by look or
gesture--"
"I know a newspaper editor," Lousteau went on, addressing Gatien,
"who, anxious to forefend a grievous fate, will take no stories but
such as tell the tale of lovers burned, hewn, pounded, or cut to
pieces; of wives boiled, fried, or baked; he takes them to his wife to
read, hoping that sheer fear will keep her faithful--satisfied with
The Muse of the Department |
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 Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: until you have earned the brains you so greatly desire."
The Scarecrow went sorrowfully back to his friends and told
them what Oz had said; and Dorothy was surprised to find that the
Great Wizard was not a Head, as she had seen him, but a lovely Lady.
"All the same," said the Scarecrow, "she needs a heart as much
as the Tin Woodman."
On the next morning the soldier with the green whiskers came
to the Tin Woodman and said:
"Oz has sent for you. Follow me."
So the Tin Woodman followed him and came to the great Throne
Room. He did not know whether he would find Oz a lovely Lady or a
The Wizard of Oz |
