| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Do you dare make such a claim?" she asked.
By this time Ozma had made up her mind as to the
character of this haughty and disdainful creature,
whose self-pride evidently led her to believe herself
superior to all others.
"I did not come here to quarrel with your Majesty,"
said the girl Ruler of Oz, quietly. "What and who I am
is well established, and my authority comes from the
Fairy Queen Lurline, of whose band I was a member when
Lurline made all Oz a Fairyland. There are several
countries and several different peoples in this broad
Glinda of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: which constitute wealth? For all things probably may be said to be useful
which we use in production, just as all things which have life are animals,
but there is a special kind of animal which we call 'man.' Now if any one
were to ask us, What is that of which, if we were rid, we should not want
medicine and the instruments of medicine, we might reply that this would be
the case if disease were absent from our bodies and either never came to
them at all or went away again as soon as it appeared; and we may therefore
conclude that medicine is the science which is useful for getting rid of
disease. But if we are further asked, What is that from which, if we were
free, we should have no need of wealth? can we give an answer? If we have
none, suppose that we restate the question thus:--If a man could live
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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 Death of the Lion by Henry James: had pocketed the whole poor place while Paraday and I were wool-
gathering, and I could imagine that he had already got his "heads."
His system, at any rate, was justified by the inevitability with
which I replied, to save my friend the trouble: "Dear no - he
hasn't read it. He doesn't read such things!" I unwarily added.
"Things that are TOO far over the fence, eh?" I was indeed a
godsend to Mr. Morrow. It was the psychological moment; it
determined the appearance of his note-book, which, however, he at
first kept slightly behind him, even as the dentist approaching his
victim keeps the horrible forceps. "Mr. Paraday holds with the
good old proprieties - I see!" And thinking of the thirty-seven
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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 Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: two men. One was a tiny, ragged, old bushman, four feet high; the other
was an English navvy, in a dark blue blouse. They cut the kid's throat
with the navvy's long knife, and covered up the blood with sand, and buried
the entrails and skin. Then they talked, and quarrelled a little; and then
they talked quietly again.
The Hottentot man put a leg of the kid under his coat and left the rest of
the meat for the two in the sluit, and walked away.
When little Jannita awoke it was almost sunset. She sat up very
frightened, but her goats were all about her. She began to drive them
home. "I do not think there are any lost," she said.
Dirk, the Hottentot, had brought his flock home already, and stood at the
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