| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: shall have to go and leave you."
"Can't you help us any," pleaded the girl. "If there's anything
magic about you, you might get us out of this scrape."
"I haven't any magic strong enough to get you off the Magic Isle,"
replied the Lonesome Duck. "What magic I possess is very simple, but
I find it enough for my own needs."
"If we could only sit down a while, we could stand it better," said
Trot, "but we have nothing to sit on."
"Then you will have to stand it," said the Lonesome Duck.
"P'raps you've enough magic to give us a couple of stools,"
suggested Cap'n Bill.
The Magic of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: nothing in exchange, and went away. There's no trade there now,
but they would have been starving in another week - if I hadn't
turned up."
"Meddling! English meddling! And suppose the rascals don't
deserve anything better than to starve, eh?"
"There are women and children there, you know," observed Jasper, in
his even tone.
"Oh, yes! When an Englishman talks of women and children, you may
be sure there's something fishy about the business. Your doings
will have to be investigated."
They spoke in turn, as though they had been disembodied spirits -
'Twixt Land & Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: "No; I had enough of her about my past. But," added Gazonal, struck by
a sudden thought, "if she can, by the help of those dreadful
collaborators, predict the future, how came she to lose in the
lottery?"
"Ah! you put your finger on one of the greatest mysteries of occult
science," replied Leon. "The moment that the species of inward mirror
on which the past or the future is reflected to their minds become
clouded by the breath of a personal feeling, by an idea foreign to the
purpose of the power they are exerting, sorcerers and sorceresses can
see nothing; just as an artist who blurs art with political
combinations and systems loses his genius. Not long ago, a man endowed
|
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: and the yellowing grain.
The Monkeys had set them down near a farmhouse, and the four
travelers walked up to it and knocked at the door. It was opened
by the farmer's wife, and when Dorothy asked for something to eat
the woman gave them all a good dinner, with three kinds of cake
and four kinds of cookies, and a bowl of milk for Toto.
"How far is it to the Castle of Glinda?" asked the child.
"It is not a great way," answered the farmer's wife.
"Take the road to the South and you will soon reach it.
Thanking the good woman, they started afresh and walked by the
fields and across the pretty bridges until they saw before them a
The Wizard of Oz |
