| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: "Fret not, friend Claus. The great Ak has spoken to us of you. There
is better work for you in life than to labor for food, and though, not
being of the Forest, Ak has no command over us, nevertheless are we
glad to favor one he loves. Live, therefore, to do the good work you
are resolved to undertake. We, the Field Ryls, will attend to your
food supplies."
After this speech the Ryls were no longer to be seen, and Claus drove
from his mind the thought of tilling the earth.
When next he wandered back to his dwelling a bowl of fresh milk stood
upon the table; bread was in the cupboard and sweet honey filled a
dish beside it. A pretty basket of rosy apples and new-plucked grapes
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: CHAPTER II
"LOUISA, the long and short of it is this," said Thorpe,
half an hour later: "you never did believe in me,
as a sister should do."
He was seated alone with this sister, in a small, low,
rather dismally-appointed room, half-heartedly lighted
by two flickering gasjets. They sat somewhat apart,
confronting a fireplace, where only the laid materials for
a fire disclosed themselves in the cold grate. Above the
mantel hung an enlarged photograph of a scowling old man.
Thorpe's gaze recurred automatically at brief intervals
The Market-Place |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: little woman. And that other woman, he says,
was plump too, fur he wouldn't never look at none
but a plump woman.
"What did she weigh?" asts Watty's wife. He
tells her a measly little three hundred pound.
"But she wasn't refined like my little woman,"
says Watty, "and when I seen that I passed her
up." And inch by inch Watty coaxed her clean
off of him.
But the next day she hearn him and Mrs. Ostrich
giggling about something, and she has a reg'lar
|
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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: appeared to be all in flames, while far within the temples, whose
doors were opening, glimmerings of light could be seen. Large
chariots, arriving from the country, rolled their wheels over the
flagstones in the streets. Dromedaries, baggage-laden, came down the
ramps. Money-changers raised the pent-houses of their shops at the
cross ways, storks took to flight, white sails fluttered. In the wood
of Tanith might be heard the tabourines of the sacred courtesans, and
the furnaces for baking the clay coffins were beginning to smoke on
the Mappalian point.
Spendius leaned over the terrace; his teeth chattered and he repeated:
"Ah! yes--yes--master! I understand why you scorned the pillage of the
Salammbo |
