| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: lightly over the navy blue satin folds of a sample.
"Pages or no Pages, you're a credit to your mother," she said,
whimsically.
Up in her room once more, she selected her smartest tailor
costume, her most modish hat, the freshest of gloves and blouses.
She chose the hours between four and six, when wheel traffic was
suspended in the Calle Florida and throughout the
shopping-district, the narrow streets of which are congested to
the point of suffocation at other times.
As she swung down the street they turned to gaze after her--these
Argentines. The fat senoras turned, and the smartly costumed,
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: first what my elders have to say, and to learn of them, and if I have
anything to add, then I may venture to give my opinion to them as well as
to you. Suppose, Nicias, that one or other of you begin.
NICIAS: I have no objection, Socrates; and my opinion is that the
acquirement of this art is in many ways useful to young men. It is an
advantage to them that among the favourite amusements of their leisure
hours they should have one which tends to improve and not to injure their
bodily health. No gymnastics could be better or harder exercise; and this,
and the art of riding, are of all arts most befitting to a freeman; for
they only who are thus trained in the use of arms are the athletes of our
military profession, trained in that on which the conflict turns. Moreover
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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 Meno by Plato: what you do with a part of virtue; for justice and the like are said by you
to be parts of virtue.
MENO: What of that?
SOCRATES: What of that! Why, did not I ask you to tell me the nature of
virtue as a whole? And you are very far from telling me this; but declare
every action to be virtue which is done with a part of virtue; as though
you had told me and I must already know the whole of virtue, and this too
when frittered away into little pieces. And, therefore, my dear Meno, I
fear that I must begin again and repeat the same question: What is virtue?
for otherwise, I can only say, that every action done with a part of virtue
is virtue; what else is the meaning of saying that every action done with
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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 Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "They're all gone," said he.
"Gone!" exclaimed the Nome King. "Gone where?"
"They left no address, Your Majesty; but they
are not in the pit."
"Picks and puddles!" roared the King; "who took
the cover off?"
"No one," said Pang. "The cover was there, but
the prisoners were not under it."
"In that case," snarled the King, trying to
control his disappointment, "go to the Slimy Cave
and fetch hither the girl and the donkey. And
Tik-Tok of Oz |
