| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: brown hand to white--the one, work-worn and hardened by whip-handle
and paddle, the other as guiltless of toil and soft as a newborn
babe's. And, for all the obvious softness and apparent weakness,
Jees Uck looked into the blue eyes and saw the mastery she had seen
in Neil Bonner's eyes and in the eyes of Neil Bonner's people.
"Why, it's Jees Uck!" Neil Bonner said, when he entered. He said
it calmly, with even a ring of joyful cordiality, coming over to
her and shaking both her hands, but looking into her eyes with a
worry in his own that she understood.
"Hello, Neil!" she said. "You look much good."
"Fine, fine, Jees Uck," he answered heartily, though secretly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: "Oh, uncle, uncle!" cried poor Oscar, plunged by these words into all
the horrors of his position, and falling on his knees before his
uncle, with clasped hands, "It is twelve o'clock! I am lost,
dishonored! Monsieur Desroches will have no pity! He gave me the money
for an important affair, in which his pride was concerned. I was to
get a paper at the Palais in the case of Vandernesse versus
Vandernesse! What will become of me? Oh, save me for the sake of my
father and aunt! Come with me to Monsieur Desroches, and explain it to
him; make some excuse,--anything!"
These sentences were jerked out through sobs and tears that might have
moved the sphinx of Luxor.
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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 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: out his bony legs as he fluttered and floundered through the air was
enough to make anybody nervous. He groaned, too, as if frightened,
and the wings creaked dreadfully because the Wizard had forgotten to
oil them; but they kept fairly good time with the wings of the buggy,
so that they made excellent progress from the start. The only thing
that anyone could complain of with justice was the fact that they
wobbled first up and then down, as if the road were rocky instead of
being as smooth as the air could make it.
The main point, however, was that they flew, and flew swiftly, if a
bit unevenly, toward the rock for which they had headed.
Some of the Gargoyles saw them, presently, and lost no time in
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
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 A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Have emptied all their fountains in my well,
And mine I pour your ocean all among:
I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
Must for your victory us all congest,
As compound love to physic your cold breast.
'My parts had pow'r to charm a sacred nun,
Who, disciplin'd and dieted in grace,
Believ'd her eyes when they t oassail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place.
O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
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