| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: a city they had entered, and what the people were like who had made
these powerful creatures their slaves. Through the legs of the giants
as they walked, Dorothy could see rows of houses on each side of the
street and throngs of people standing on the sidewalks, but the people
were of ordinary size and the only remarkable thing about them was the
fact that they were dreadfully lean and thin. Between their skin and
their bones there seemed to be little or no flesh, and they were
mostly stoop-shouldered and weary looking, even to the little
children.
More and more, Dorothy wondered how and why the great giants had ever
submitted to become slaves of such skinny, languid masters, but there
The Lost Princess of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: see that the image grew very beautiful while they worked at it,
and would think that they themselves had done it all.
"My little girl and boy deserve such playmates, if mortal
children ever did!" said the mother to herself; and then she
smiled again at her own motherly pride.
Nevertheless, the idea seized upon her imagination; and, ever and
anon, she took a glimpse out of the window, half dreaming that
she might see the golden-haired children of paradise sporting
with her own golden-haired Violet and bright-cheeked Peony.
Now, for a few moments, there was a busy and earnest, but
indistinct hum of the two children's voices, as Violet and Peony
The Snow Image |
