| 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: The boy's face was bright with smiles as he took the precious toy
Claus held out to him; but little Mayrie covered her face with her arm
and began to sob grievously.
"I--I--I wants a t--t--tat now!" she wailed.
Her disappointment made Claus feel miserable for a moment. Then he
suddenly remembered Shiegra.
"Don't cry, darling!" he said, soothingly; "I have a toy much nicer
than a cat, and you shall have that."
He went to the cupboard and drew out the image of the lioness, which
he placed on the table before Mayrie.
The girl raised her arm and gave one glance at the fierce teeth and
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to
a government qualified only to rule such a people; and were not its
distance inconceivably, great from Muscovy, and that empire in a
manner as rude, impotent, and ill governed as they, the Czar of
Muscovy might with ease drive them all out of their country, and
conquer them in one campaign; and had the Czar (who is now a
growing prince) fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike
Swedes, and equally improved himself in the art of war, as they say
he has done; and if none of the powers of Europe had envied or
interrupted him, he might by this time have been Emperor of China,
instead of being beaten by the King of Sweden at Narva, when the
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: with the richest creations of sculpture, rich in light and shade and
lavishly massed and colored by Nature, who understands such art as
well as any Michael Angelo. Ivy clasped the walls with its nervous
tendrils, showing stems amid its foliage like the veins in a lay
figure. This mantle, flung by Time to cover the wounds he made, was
starred by autumn flowers drooping from the crevices, which also gave
shelter to numerous singing birds. The rose-window above the
projecting porch was adorned with blue campanula, like the first page
of an illuminated missal. The side which communicated with the
parsonage, toward the north, was not less decorated; the wall was gray
and red with moss and lichen; but the other side and the apse, around
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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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: in all the world, and of young David of Doncaster, whom he had trained
so well in all manly sports, till there came over his heart a great
and bitter longing for them all, so that his eyes filled with tears.
Then he said aloud, "Here I grow fat like a stall-fed ox and all my
manliness departeth from me while I become a sluggard and dolt.
But I will arouse me and go back to mine own dear friends once more,
and never will I leave them again till life doth leave my lips."
So saying, he leaped from bed, for he hated his sluggishness now.
When he came downstairs he saw the Steward standing near the pantry door--
a great, fat man, with a huge bundle of keys hanging to his girdle.
Then Little John said, "Ho, Master Steward, a hungry man am I, for nought
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
