| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: the lovely women who were mothers and nothing else; beyond these
her keen, active mind hungered eagerly for the world life.
"I'm almost as anxious to go as you are yourself," she insisted,
"and you must be desperately homesick."
I assured her that no one could be homesick in such a paradise
as theirs, but she would have none of it.
"Oh, yes--I know. It's like those little tropical islands you've
told me about, shining like jewels in the big blue sea--I can't wait
to see the sea! The little island may be as perfect as a garden, but
you always want to get back to your own big country, don't you?
Even if it is bad in some ways?"
Herland |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: the blood of Christ would become of little value, neither
would the preeminence of man's works be superseded by the
mercy of God, if justification, which is wrought through
grace, were due to the merits going before, so as to be, not
the free gift of a donor, but the reward due to the laborer.
But, although this doctrine is despised by the inexperienced,
nevertheless God-fearing and anxious consciences find by
experience that it brings the greatest consolation, because
consciences cannot be set at rest through any works, but only
by faith, when they take the sure ground that for Christ's
sake they have a reconciled God. As Paul teaches Rom. 5, 1:
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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 Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: the part of Frau Nirlanger when she saw Bennie snatched
to the breast of this weeping woman. So it was that in
the midst of the confusion we did not hear the approach
of the probation officer and her charge. They came up
the path to the door, and there the little sister turned
the knob, and it yielded under her fingers, and the old
door swung open; and so she entered the house quite as
Alma Pflugel had planned she should, except that the
roses were not blooming along the edge of the sunken
brick walk.
She entered the room in silence, and no one could
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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 Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: climbed into the Red Wagon.
There was room for all on the broad seats, and when all
had taken their places -- Dorothy, Trot and Betsy on the
rear seat and Cap'n Bill, Button-Bright and the Scarecrow
in front -- they called "Gid-dap!" to the Sawhorse and
the wooden steed moved briskly away, pulling the Red
Wagon with ease.
It was now that the strangers began to perceive the
real beauties of the Land of Oz, for they were passing
through a more thickly settled part of the country and
the population grew more dense as they drew nearer to the
The Scarecrow of Oz |
