| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: yellow that has any color at all."
"But I thought this was the Land of Oz," replied the shaggy man,
as if greatly disappointed.
"So it is," she declared; "but there are four parts to the Land of Oz.
The North Country is purple, and it's the Country of the Gillikins.
The East Country is blue, and that's the Country of the Munchkins.
Down at the South is the red Country of the Quadlings, and here, in
the West, the yellow Country of the Winkies. This is the part that is
ruled by the Tin Woodman, you know."
"Who's he?" asked Button-Bright.
"Why, he's the tin man I told you about. His name is Nick Chopper,
The Road to Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: sometimes we were told the plague would return by such a time; and
the famous Solomon Eagle, the naked Quaker I have mentioned,
prophesied evil tidings every day; and several others telling us that
London had not been sufficiently scourged, and that sorer and severer
strokes were yet behind. Had they stopped there, or had they
descended to particulars, and told us that the city should the next year
be destroyed by fire, then, indeed, when we had seen it come to pass,
we should not have been to blame to have paid more than a common
respect to their prophetic spirits; at least we should have wondered at
them, and have been more serious in our inquiries after the meaning
of it, and whence they had the foreknowledge. But as they generally
A Journal of the Plague Year |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: sun has been less warm, less luminous, the nights more gloomy,
movement less agile, thought more dull. There are some departed whom
we bury in the earth, but there are others more deeply loved for whom
our souls are winding-sheets, whose memory mingles daily with our
heart-beats; we think of them as we breathe; they are in us by the
tender law of a metempsychosis special to love. A soul is within my
soul. When some good thing is done by me, when some true word is
spoken, that soul acts and speaks. All that is good within me issues
from that grave, as the fragrance of a lily fills the air; sarcasm,
bitterness, all that you blame in me is mine. Natalie, when next my
eyes are darkened by a cloud or raised to heaven after long
The Lily of the Valley |
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 Mountains by Stewart Edward White: for a week lest it carry away his entire face. I have
seen men with deep sores on their shoulders caused
by nothing but excessive burning in the sun. This,
too, is merely amusing. It means quite simply that
Algernon realizes his inner deficiencies and wants to
make up for them by the outward seeming. Be kind
to him, for he has been raised a pet.
The tenderfoot is lovable--mysterious in how he
does it--and awfully unexpected.
XII
THE CANON
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