| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the Gump gave the screeching cry that is familiar to those animals, and then
the four wings began flopping furiously.
Tip managed to grasp a chimney, else he would have been blown off the roof
by the terrible breeze raised by the wings. The Scarecrow, being light in
weight, was caught up bodily and borne through the air until Tip luckily
seized him by one leg and held him fast. The Woggle-Bug lay flat upon the
roof and so escaped harm,
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and the Tin Woodman, whose weight of tin anchored him firmly, threw both
arms around Jack Pumpkinhead and managed to save him. The Saw-Horse toppled
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: but this time it was he that stopped me. My leg was
bleeding profusely. Some of the smaller veins had
doubtless been ruptured. Running out to the end of a
branch, Lop-Ear gathered a handful of green leaves.
These he stuffed into the wound. They accomplished the
purpose, for the bleeding soon stopped. Then we went
on together, back to the safety of the caves.
CHAPTER VIII
Well do I remember that first winter after I left home.
I have long dreams of sitting shivering in the cold.
Lop-Ear and I sit close together, with our arms and
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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 A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: at self-sacrifice, and if you throw bread to the poor, it is merely
to keep them quiet for a season. With all your pomp and wealth and
art you don't know how to live - you don't even know that. You
love the beauty that you can see and touch and handle, the beauty
that you can destroy, and do destroy, but of the unseen beauty of
life, of the unseen beauty of a higher life, you know nothing. You
have lost life's secret. Oh, your English society seems to me
shallow, selfish, foolish. It has blinded its eyes, and stopped
its ears. It lies like a leper in purple. It sits like a dead
thing smeared with gold. It is all wrong, all wrong.
LADY STUTFIELD. I don't think one should know of these things. It
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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 Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: "And you, little aunt, have you come to life again? Ah! you were not
half as frightened as I was. I put your interests before my own; I
haven't breathed freely till this morning at eleven o'clock; and yet I
am sure now of having two mortal enemies at my heels in the two men I
have tricked for your sake. As I walked home, just now, I asked myself
what could be your influence over me to make me commit such a crime,
and whether the happiness of belonging to your family and becoming
your son could ever efface the stain I have put upon my conscience."
"Bah! you can confess it," said Thuillier, the free-thinker.
"And now," said Theodose to Brigitte, "you can pay, in all security,
the cost of the house,--eighty thousand francs, and thirty thousand to
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