| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: a sudden hailstorm, and the visitors, knowing that caution was no
longer necessary, hurried forward to see what had happened.
After the clatter an intense stillness reigned in the town. The
strangers entered the first house they came to, which was also the
largest, and found the floor strewn with pieces of the people who
lived there. They looked much like fragments of wood neatly painted,
and were of all sorts of curious and fantastic shapes, no two pieces
being in any way alike.
They picked up some of these pieces and looked at them carefully. On
one which Dorothy held was an eye, which looked at her pleasantly but
with an interested expression, as if it wondered what she was going to
The Emerald City of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: bedroom without the companionship of one of those things that were having
their brains slowly diluted and squeezed out of them. I did not learn
music, because I had no talent; and when the drove made cushions, and
hideous flowers that the roses laugh at, and a footstool in six weeks that
a machine would have made better in five minutes, I went to my room. With
the money saved from such work I bought books and newspapers, and at night
I sat up. I read, and epitomized what I read; and I found time to write
some plays, and find out how hard it is to make your thoughts look anything
but imbecile fools when you paint them with ink and paper. In the holidays
I learnt a great deal more. I made acquaintances, saw a few places and
many people, and some different ways of living, which is more than any
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Redheaded Outfield by Zane Grey: Carl and Manning. I breathed easier, for it
seemed with those two runners in, the Rube had a
better chance. Treadwell also took those two
runners in, the Rube had a way those Bisons
waited. They had their reward, for the Rube's
speed left him. When he pitched again the ball
had control, but no shoot. Treadwell hit it with
all his strength. Like a huge cat Ashwell pounced
upon it, ran over second base, forcing Ellis, and
his speedy snap to first almost caught Treadwell.
Score 8 to 7. Two out. Runner on first. One
The Redheaded Outfield |
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 Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: lonely than at any time of his life save during those
few weeks in California, for he had lived with her
incessantly in spirit; and in that subtle imaginative
communion had pressed close to a profound and
complex soul, revealed before only in flashes to a
vision astray in the confusion of the senses. He
had felt that her response to his passion was far
more vital and enduring than dwelt in the capacity
of most women; he had appreciated her gifts of
mind, her piquant variousness that scotched monot-
ony, the admirable characteristics that would give
Rezanov |
