| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: the enterprise, but each, save one youthful pair, impelled by his
own selfish and solitary longing for this wondrous gem. Their
feeling of brotherhood, however, was strong enough to induce them
to contribute a mutual aid in building a rude hut of branches,
and kindling a great fire of shattered pines, that had drifted
down the headlong current of the Amonoosuck, on the lower bank of
which they were to pass the night. There was but one of their
number, perhaps, who had become so estranged from natural
sympathies, by the absorbing spell of the pursuit, as to
acknowledge no satisfaction at the sight of human faces, in the
remote and solitary region whither they had ascended. A vast
Twice Told Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: popular person in all Oz, next to Ozma -- was absent at
the time of the banquet, for he happened just then to
be making one of his trips through the country; but the
Scarecrow had a chance later to meet Rinkitink and Inga
and the King and Queen of Pingaree and Prince Bobo, for
the party remained several weeks at the Emerald City,
where they were royally entertained, and where both the
gentle Queen Garee and the noble King Kitticut
recovered much of their good spirits and composure and
tried to forget their dreadful experiences.
At last, however, the King and Queen desired to
Rinkitink In Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: formidable belligerent than their old bruised and beaten enemy
the sheriff of Nottingham.
CHAPTER XVII
Oh! this life
Is nobler than attending for a check,
Richer than doing nothing for a bribe
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk.--Cymbeline.
So Robin and Marian dwelt and reigned in the forest, ranging the glades
and the greenwoods from the matins of the lark to the vespers
of the nightingale, and administering natural justice according
to Robin's ideas of rectifying the inequalities of human condition:
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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 Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: hilltop; our eyes commanded some of Napa Valley, where the
train ran, and the little country townships sat so close
together along the line of the rail. But here there was no
man to intrude. None but the Hansons were our visitors.
Even they came but at long intervals, or twice daily, at a
stated hour, with milk. So our days, as they were never
interrupted, drew out to the greater length; hour melted
insensibly into hour; the household duties, though they were
many, and some of them laborious, dwindled into mere islets
of business in a sea of sunny day-time; and it appears to me,
looking back, as though the far greater part of our life at
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