| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: between, and pretty rippling brooks with strong bridges across them.
The fences and houses and bridges were all painted bright red,
just as they had been painted yellow in the country of the Winkies
and blue in the country of the Munchkins. The Quadlings themselves,
who were short and fat and looked chubby and good-natured, were
dressed all in red, which showed bright against the green grass
and the yellowing grain.
The Monkeys had set them down near a farmhouse, and the four
travelers walked up to it and knocked at the door. It was opened
by the farmer's wife, and when Dorothy asked for something to eat
the woman gave them all a good dinner, with three kinds of cake
The Wizard of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;
And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:
Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;
When he most burned in heart-wish'd luxury,
He preach'd pure maid and prais'd cold chastity.
'Thus merely with the garment of a Grace
The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd,
That the unexperienc'd gave the tempter place,
Which, like a cherubin, above them hover'd.
Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?
Ay me! I fell, and yet do question make
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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 Economist by Xenophon: solitary place.
[7] Lit. "farming is best adapted to rearing horses along with other
produce."
[8] Lit. "to labour willingly and earnestly at hunting earth helps to
incite us somewhat."
Earth, too, adds stimulus in war-time to earth's tillers; she pricks
them on to aid the country under arms, and this she does by fostering
her fruits in open field, the prize of valour for the mightiest.[9]
For this also is the art athletic, this of husbandry; as thereby men
are fitted to run, and hurl the spear, and leap with the best.[10]
[9] Cf. "Hipparch," viii. 8.
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: itself in authority, it were matter of another sort of disquisition
to decide.
Sylla being thus wholly bent upon slaughter, and filling the city
with executions without number or limit, many wholly uninterested
persons falling a sacrifice to private enmity, through his permission
and indulgence to his friends, Caius Metellus, one of the younger
men, made bold in the senate to ask him what end there was of these
evils, and at what point he might be expected to stop? "We do not
ask you," said he, "to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy,
but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to save." Sylla
answering, that he knew not as yet whom to spare. "Why then," said
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