| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Patent Double-Action, Extra-Responsive,
Thought-Creating, Perfect-Talking
MECHANICAL MAN
Fitted with our Special Clockwork Attachment.
Thinks, Speaks, Acts, and Does Everything
but Live.
"Isn't he wonderful!" exclaimed the Princess.
"Yes; but here's more," said Betsy, reading
from another engraved plate:
DIRECTIONS FOR USING:
For THINKING:--Wind the Clockwork
Tik-Tok of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: of the whale boat, and the elasticity of its materials, a cracked
rib or a dashed plank or two, a sort of stitch in the side, is
generally the most serious result. These submerged side blows are so
often received in the fishery, that they are accounted mere child's
play. Some one strips off a frock, and the hole is stopped.
Third: I cannot demonstrate it, but it seems to me, that in the whale
the sense of touch is concentrated in the tail; for in this respect
there is a delicacy in it only equalled by the daintiness of the
elephant's trunk. This delicacy is chiefly evinced in the action of
sweeping, when in maidenly gentleness the whale with a certain soft
slowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface of
Moby Dick |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: overwhelmed them with its treasures, while poverty rose, like a
skeleton, amid their harvest of joy. Yet, all the while, they hid from
each other their secret anxiety. When Ginevra felt like weeping as she
watched Luigi's worn and suffering face, she redoubled her caresses;
and Luigi, keeping his dark forebodings in the depths of his soul,
expressed to his Ginevra the tenderest love. They sought a
compensation for their troubles in exalting their feelings; and their
words, their joys, their caresses became suffused, as it were, with a
species of frenzy. They feared the future. What feeling can be
compared in strength with that of a passion which may cease on the
morrow, killed by death or want? When they talked together of their
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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 Talisman by Walter Scott: panoply, his Saracen companion kindly assisting him to undo his
buckler and clasps, until he remained in the close dress of
chamois leather, which knights and men-at-arms used to wear under
their harness. The Saracen, if he had admired the strength of
his adversary when sheathed in steel, was now no less struck with
the accuracy of proportion displayed in his nervous and well-
compacted figure. The knight, on the other hand, as, in exchange
of courtesy, he assisted the Saracen to disrobe himself of his
upper garments, that he might sleep with more convenience, was,
on his side, at a loss to conceive how such slender proportions
and slimness of figure could be reconciled with the vigour he had
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