| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: found, who would be satisfied with thirty thousand francs for my
marriage portion, we might all be happy. In fact, she thought it
advisable to prepare me for the modesty of my future lot, and to
hinder me from indulging in too fervid dreams.--Which evidently meant
an end to the intended marriage, and no settlements for me!"
"Your mother is a very good woman, noble, admirable!" replied the
father, deeply humiliated, though not sorry to hear this confession.
"She told me yesterday that she had your permission to sell her
diamonds so as to give me something to marry on; but I should like her
to keep her jewels, and to find a husband myself. I think I have found
the man, the possible husband, answering to mamma's prospectus----"
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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 Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "It wouldn't look very well in a hole in the ground, would it?"
she suggested.
"Maybe not; but I'm used to sitting in it and I'd like to take it
with me," he answered. "But here come the ladies and gentlemen of the
court; so please sit beside me and be presented."
21. How the King Changed His Mind
Just then a rabbit band of nearly fifty pieces marched in, playing
upon golden instruments and dressed in neat uniforms. Following the
band came the nobility of Bunnybury, all richly dressed and hopping
along on their rear legs. Both the ladies and the gentlemen wore
white gloves upon their paws, with their rings on the outside of the
The Emerald City of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: Academicians, disguised as artists, and it was said that at one
time the supper-room was absolutely crammed with geniuses. In
fact, it was one of Lady Windermere's best nights, and the Princess
stayed till nearly half-past eleven.
As soon as she had gone, Lady Windermere returned to the picture-
gallery, where a celebrated political economist was solemnly
explaining the scientific theory of music to an indignant virtuoso
from Hungary, and began to talk to the Duchess of Paisley. She
looked wonderfully beautiful with her grand ivory throat, her large
blue forget-me-not eyes, and her heavy coils of golden hair. OR
PUR they were - not that pale straw colour that nowadays usurps the
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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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: connected with Molluscan types. Some of them come so near to the
compound ascidians that they have been termed, as an order,
"Zoophyta ascidioida."
The simplest form of polype is that of a fleshy bag open at one
end, surmounted by a circle of contractile threads or fingers
called tentacles. The plate shows, on a very minute scale, at
figs. 1, 3, and 6, several of these little polypiform bodies
protruding from their cells. But the Hydra or Fresh-water Polype
has no cell, and is quite unconnected with any root thread, or with
other individuals of the same species. It is perfectly free, and
so simple in its structure, that when the sac which forms its body
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