| 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: nothing else to do, I joined a circus again, and made my balloon
ascensions until the earthquake caught me."
"That is quite a history," said Ozma; "but there is a little more
history about the Land of Oz that you do not seem to
understand--perhaps for the reason that no one ever told it you. Many
years before you came here this Land was united under one Ruler, as it
is now, and the Ruler's name was always 'Oz,' which means in our
language 'Great and Good'; or, if the Ruler happened to be a woman,
her name was always 'Ozma.' But once upon a time four Witches leagued
together to depose the king and rule the four parts of the kingdom
themselves; so when the Ruler, my grandfather, was hunting one day, one
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 Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: hackney for the road, to save his gallant war-horse,
which a squire led behind, fully accoutred for battle,
with a chamfrom or plaited head-piece upon his bead,
having a short spike projecting from the front.
On one side of the saddle hung a short battle-axe,
richly inlaid with Damascene carving;
on the other the rider's plumed head-piece
and hood of mail, with a long two-handed sword,
used by the chivalry of the period. A second squire
held aloft his master's lance, from the extremity
of which fluttered a small banderole, or streamer,
Ivanhoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: This time Bessie Alden was displeased; she slowly got up
from the table, turning her face away from her sister.
"You will oblige me by not talking so," she said.
Mrs. Westgate sat watching her for some moments as she moved
slowly about the room and went and stood at the window.
"I will write to him this afternoon," she said at last.
"Do as you please!" Bessie answered; and presently she turned round.
"I am not afraid to say that I like Lord Lambeth. I like him very much."
"He is not clever," Mrs. Westgate declared.
"Well, there have been clever people whom I have disliked,"
said Bessie Alden; "so that I suppose I may like a stupid one.
|
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 Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: "I made up my mind at the end of the aforesaid trip one night, by
moonlight, on our way home, while I was sitting beside her. I
admired her slender body, whose charming shape was moulded by a
jersey, and her curling hair, and I suddenly concluded that THIS
WAS SHE. It seemed to me on that beautiful evening that she
understood all that I thought and felt, and I thought and felt
the most elevating things.
"Really, it was only the jersey that was so becoming to her, and
her curly hair, and also the fact that I had spent the day beside
her, and that I desired a more intimate relation.
"I returned home enthusiastic, and I persuaded myself that she
The Kreutzer Sonata |
