| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: took hold of the crucible, and sloped it, so as to pour out the
gold. But instead of a liquid stream there came out, first a pair
of pretty little yellow legs, then some coat tails, then a pair of
arms stuck akimbo, and finally the well-known head of his friend the
mug--all which articles, uniting as they rolled out, stood up
energetically on the floor in the shape of a little golden dwarf
about a foot and a half high.
"That's right!" said the dwarf, stretching out first his
legs and then his arms, and then shaking his head up and down and
as far round as it would go, for five minutes without stopping,
apparently with the view of ascertaining if he were quite correctly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: the Vicomtesse, in all sincerity, had no notion what it could be. Mme.
de Beauseant, in perplexity, connected Gaston with people whom he had
never met, went astray after various wild conjectures, and asked
herself if she had seen this M. de Nueil before. In truth, no love-
letter, however sincere or skilfully indited, could have produced so
much effect as this riddle. Again and again Mme. de Beauseant puzzled
over it.
When Gaston heard that he might call upon the Vicomtesse, his rapture
at so soon obtaining the ardently longed-for good fortune was mingled
with singular embarrassment. How was he to contrive a suitable sequel
to this stratagem?
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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 Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: elegantly dressed; her confessor permits her to combine the mundane
with sanctity. Always in conformity with the Church and with the
world, she presents a living image of the present day, which seems to
have taken the word "legality" for its motto. The conduct of the
marquise shows precisely enough religious devotion to attain under a
new Maintenon to the gloomy piety of the last days of Louis XIV., and
enough worldliness to adopt the habits of gallantry of the first years
of that reign, should it ever be revived. At the present moment she is
strictly virtuous from policy, possibly from inclination. Married for
the last seven years to the Marquis de Listomere, one of those
deputies who expect a peerage, she may also consider that such conduct
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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 Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "I think you'd better let me explain that,"
interrupted the Shaggy Man, and then he told
Dorothy all of Ojo's story and how Unc Nunkie and
Margolotte had accidentally been turned to marble
by the Liquid of Petrifaction. Then he related how
the boy had started out in search of the things
needed to make the magic charm, which would
restore the unfortunates to life, and how he had
found the Woozy and taken him along because he
could not pull the three hairs out of its tail.
Dorothy listened to all this with much interest,
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
