| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: six cuts, weird and fiery, like the text. The pilgrim is
throughout a pale and stockish figure; but the devil covers a
multitude of defects. There is no better devil of the
conventional order than our artist's Apollyon, with his mane,
his wings, his bestial legs, his changing and terrifying
expression, his infernal energy to slay. In cut the first
you see him afar off, still obscure in form, but already
formidable in suggestion. Cut the second, 'The Fiend in
Discourse,' represents him, not reasoning, railing rather,
shaking his spear at the pilgrim, his shoulder advanced, his
tail writhing in the air, his foot ready for a spring, while
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: The boy asked the White Pearl what direction the boat
of King Gos had taken and then he followed after it,
rowing hard and steadily for eight days without
becoming at all weary. But, although the black boat
moved very swiftly, it failed to overtake the barge
which was rowed by Queen Cor's forty picked oarsmen.
Chapter Seventeen
The Nome King
The Kingdom of the Nomes does not border on the
Nonestic Ocean, from which it is separated by the
Kingdom of Rinkitink and the Country of the Wheelers,
Rinkitink In Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: own irrepressible and streaming tears tickling her nose and cheeks.
The countess pressed her daughter's hand, closed her eyes, and
became quiet for a moment. Suddenly she sat up with unaccustomed
swiftness, glanced vacantly around her, and seeing Natasha began to
press her daughter's head with all her strength. Then she turned
toward her daughter's face which was wincing with pain and gazed
long at it.
"Natasha, you love me?" she said in a soft trustful whisper.
"Natasha, you would not deceive me? You'll tell me the whole truth?"
Natasha looked at her with eyes full of tears and in her look
there was nothing but love and an entreaty for forgiveness.
War and Peace |
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 Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: by one button. In one hand he carried a small leather satchel;
in the other a girl's sailor hat; a little tan coat was thrown
across his arm. The giggles of the boy hiding behind his
mother's skirt were the only greetings received by the trembling
old man in the doorway.
He glanced uncertainly from one unfriendly face to the other,
waiting for a word of invitation to enter; but none came.
"Excuse me," he said; "I just brought some of her little things.
She'd better put on her coat when she goes out. It's gettin'
kinder chilly."
He looked again into the blank faces; still no one spoke. He
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