| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: evil, just and unjust, honourable and dishonourable: there would have been
no quarrels among them, if there had been no such differences--would there
now?
EUTHYPHRO: You are quite right.
SOCRATES: Does not every man love that which he deems noble and just and
good, and hate the opposite of them?
EUTHYPHRO: Very true.
SOCRATES: But, as you say, people regard the same things, some as just and
others as unjust,--about these they dispute; and so there arise wars and
fightings among them.
EUTHYPHRO: Very true.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: For a long time he slept without dreaming, but just before dawn
the visions recommenced. It seemed to him that he was standing
by the box of tapers and that Tikhon's wife was asking for a
five kopek taper for the Church fete. He wished to take one out
and give it to her, but his hands would not life, being held
tight in his pockets. He wanted to walk round the box but his
feet would not move and his new clean goloshes had grown to the
stone floor, and he could neither lift them nor get his feet
out of the goloshes. Then the taper-box was no longer a box
but a bed, and suddenly Vasili Andreevich saw himself lying in
his bed at home. He was lying in his bed and could not get up.
Master and Man |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: It had stirred in him, in his careless hours, as he pulled down
the river under a more familiar name, a certain sense of the
romantic; and when the nice contrivance of his story was already
complete in his mind, he had come near pulling it all down again,
like an ungrateful clock, in order to introduce a chapter in
which Richard Skill (who was always being decoyed somewhere)
should be decoyed on board that lonely hulk by Lord Bellew and
the American desperado Gin Sling. It was fortunate he had not
done so, he reflected, since the hulk was now required for very
different purposes.
Jimson, a man of inconspicuous costume, but insinuating manners,
|
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 Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: some of whom were present, loudly promised to obey the new King.
So the Queen placed a big crown of gold, set with rubies, upon
Evardo's head, and threw an ermine robe over his shoulders, and
proclaimed him King; and he bowed gratefully to all his subjects and
then went away to see if he could find any cake in the royal pantry.
Ozma of Oz and her people, as well as Dorothy, Tiktok and Billina,
were splendidly entertained by the Queen mother, who owed all her
happiness to their kind offices; and that evening the yellow hen was
publicly presented with a beautiful necklace of pearls and sapphires,
as a token of esteem from the new King.
20. The Emerald City
Ozma of Oz |
