| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Sawhorse to decide which is the most beautiful animal among us all.
The Sawhorse is wood, so he won't be prejudiced and will speak the
truth."
"I surely will," responded the Sawhorse, wagging his ears, which were
chips set in his wooden head. "Are you all agreed to accept my
judgment?"
"We are!" they declared, each one hopeful.
"Then," said the Sawhorse, "I must point out to you the fact that you
are all meat creatures, who tire unless they sleep and starve unless
they eat and suffer from thirst unless they drink. Such animals must
be very imperfect, and imperfect creatures cannot be beautiful. Now,
The Lost Princess of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: say, madam, as I am a living woman I came here to break with him for
ever. Oh, madam, if you would know what misery is, listen to this man
that is more than man and less at the same time. He will tie you down
to anatomize your very soul: he will wring tears of blood from your
humiliation; and then he will heal the wound with flatteries that no
woman can resist.
SHAKESPEAR. Flatteries! _[Kneeling]_ Oh, madam, I put my case at
your royal feet. I confess to much. I have a rude tongue: I am
unmannerly: I blaspheme against the holiness of anointed royalty; but
oh, my royal mistress, AM I a flatterer?
ELIZABETH. I absolve you as to that. You are far too plain a dealer
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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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: book which we strive to read by an imperfect and gradually
brightening light. In such a manner, as the prayer proceeded, did
those voices strengthen upon the ear; till at length the petition
ended, and the conversation of an aged man, and of a woman broken
and decayed like himself, became distinctly audible to the lady
as she knelt. But those strangers appeared not to stand in the
hollow depth between the three hills. Their voices were
encompassed and reechoed by the walls of a chamber, the windows
of which were rattling in the breeze; the regular vibration of a
clock, the crackling of a fire, and the tinkling of the embers as
they fell among the ashes, rendered the scene almost as vivid as
Twice Told Tales |
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 Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: Senator Brenger; but Belgium was the first country to adopt it
in the law of 1888 ``on conditional release and conditional
sentences;'' and France followed in 1891, with the law ``on the
modification and increase of punishments.''
Before that time, at the Prison Congresses of London (1872) and
Rome (1885), there had been some discussion, without resolutions,
on the advisability of substituting for punishment with hard
labour either simple detention without labour or compulsory labour
without imprisonment, or removal from the place where the offence
was committed, or judicial admonition.
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