| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: motionless, with its head hanging down almost to the ground. It was a
big horse, tall and bony, with long legs and large knees and feet.
She could count his ribs easily where they showed through the skin of
his body, and his head was long and seemed altogether too big for him,
as if it did not fit. His tail was short and scraggly, and his
harness had been broken in many places and fastened together again
with cords and bits of wire. The buggy seemed almost new, for it had
a shiny top and side curtains. Getting around in front, so that she
could look inside, the girl saw a boy curled up on the seat, fast asleep.
She set down the bird-cage and poked the boy with her parasol.
Presently he woke up, rose to a sitting position and rubbed
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: kind and firm: and he must be quick,--he could not bear this
long. But he held the little worn fingers, stroking them with an
unutterable tenderness.
"You must let these fingers work for me, Margret," he said, at
last, "when I am master in the mill."
"It is true, then, Stephen?"
"It is true,--yes."
She lifted her hand to her head, uncertainly: he held it tightly,
and then let it go. What right had he to touch the dust upon her
shoes,--he, bought and sold? She did not speak for a time; when
she did, it was a weak and sick voice.
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: the interior one, and stood on the hearth, expectant and prepared.
I now perceived that the dog had slunk into an angle of the wall,
and was pressing himself close against it, as if literally striving
to force his way into it. I approached the animal and spoke to it;
the poor brute was evidently beside itself with terror. It showed
all its teeth, the slaver dropping from its jaws, and would
certainly have bitten me if I had touched it. It did not seem to
recognize me. Whoever has seen at the Zoological Gardens a rabbit,
fascinated by a serpent, cowering in a corner, may form some idea
of the anguish which the dog exhibited. Finding all efforts to
soothe the animal in vain, and fearing that his bite might be as
|
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 An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: It fell in straight, parallel lines; and the surface of the canal
was thrown up into an infinity of little crystal fountains. There
were no beds to be had in the neighbourhood. Nothing for it but to
lay the sails aside and address ourselves to steady paddling in the
rain.
Beautiful country houses, with clocks and long lines of shuttered
windows, and fine old trees standing in groves and avenues, gave a
rich and sombre aspect in the rain and the deepening dusk to the
shores of the canal. I seem to have seen something of the same
effect in engravings: opulent landscapes, deserted and overhung
with the passage of storm. And throughout we had the escort of a
|
