| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: unsacrilegious things, which people expect to get, and will be
disappointed about?"
"Oh, there are a lot of such things that people expect and don't
get. For instance, there's a Brooklyn preacher by the name of
Talmage, who is laying up a considerable disappointment for
himself. He says, every now and then in his sermons, that the
first thing he does when he gets to heaven, will be to fling his
arms around Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and kiss them and weep on
them. There's millions of people down there on earth that are
promising themselves the same thing. As many as sixty thousand
people arrive here every single day, that want to run straight to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: and it was through the study of storms that he approached that of
meteorology at large. Many who knew him not otherwise, knew -
perhaps have in their gardens - his louvre-boarded screen for
instruments. But the great achievement of his life was, of course,
in optics as applied to lighthouse illumination. Fresnel had done
much; Fresnel had settled the fixed light apparatus on a principle
that still seems unimprovable; and when Thomas Stevenson stepped in
and brought to a comparable perfection the revolving light, a not
unnatural jealousy and much painful controversy rose in France. It
had its hour; and, as I have told already, even in France it has
blown by. Had it not, it would have mattered the less, since all
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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 The Message by Honore de Balzac: narrow alley with the flowers on either hand; and as that fair
wonderful picture rose before my eyes, I could not repress a
sigh.
"Alas, madame, I have just made a very arduous journey----,
undertaken solely on your account."
"Sir!"
"Oh! it is on behalf of one who calls you Juliette that I am
come," I continued. Her face grew white.
"You will not see him to-day."
"Is he ill?" she asked, and her voice sank lower.
"Yes. But for pity's sake, control yourself. . . . He intrusted
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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 Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Quite certain, your Majesty," said Jellia Jamb, trying hard not to laugh in
the face of royalty.
"Then how is it that I seem to understand them myself?" inquired the
Scarecrow.
"Because they are one and the same!" declared the girl, now laughing
merrily. "Does not your Majesty know that in all the land of Oz but one
language is spoken?"
"Is it indeed so?" cried the Scarecrow, much relieved to hear this; "then I
might easily have been my own interpreter!"
"It was all my fault, your Majesty," said Jack, looking rather foolish," I
thought we must surely speak different languages, since we came from
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
