| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: savory preparation. Perchance, amid their proper element of smoke,
which eddied forth from the ill-constructed chimney, the ghosts of
departed cook-maids looked wonderingly on, or peeped down the great
breadth of the flue, despising the simplicity of the projected meal,
yet ineffectually pining to thrust their shadowy hands into each
inchoate dish. The half-starved rats, at any rate, stole visibly
out of their hiding-places, and sat on their hind-legs, snuffing the
fumy atmosphere, and wistfully awaiting an opportunity to nibble.
Hepzibah had no natural turn for cookery, and, to say the truth,
had fairly incurred her present meagreness by often choosing to
go without her dinner rather than be attendant on the rotation of
House of Seven Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: play dignity - or else going down to Apia on some more or less
unsatisfactory errand. Altogether it is a life that suits me, but
it absorbs me like an ocean. That is what I have always envied and
admired in Scott; with all that immensity of work and study, his
mind kept flexible, glancing to all points of natural interest.
But the lean hot spirits, such as mine, become hypnotised with
their bit occupations - if I may use Scotch to you - it is so far
more scornful than any English idiom. Well, I can't help being a
skeleton, and you are to take this devious passage for an apology.
I thought ALADDIN capital fun; but why, in fortune, did he pretend
it was moral at the end? The so-called nineteenth century, OU VA-
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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 Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: directly at the Frogman, or even toward him, fearing he would
shed tears if he did so; so the big frog slept on the riverbank where
he could hear little frogs croaking in the river all the night
through. But that did not keep him awake; it merely soothed him to
slumber, for he realized how much superior he was to them.
Just as the sun was rising on a new day, the ferryman rowed the two
travelers across the river--keeping his back to the Frogman all the
way--and then Cayke thanked him and bade him goodbye and the ferryman
rowed home again.
On this side of the river, there were no paths at
all, so it was evident they had reached a part of the country little
The Lost Princess of Oz |
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 Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Nevertheless, the men went safely across the lawn with the wild
beasts frisking about them, and doing no manner of harm;
although, as they mounted the steps of the palace, you might
possibly have heard a low growl, particularly from the wolves;
as if they thought it a pity, after all, to let the strangers
pass without so much as tasting what they were made of.
Eurylochus and his followers now passed under a lofty portal,
and looked through the open doorway into the interior of the
palace. The first thing that they saw was a spacious hall, and
a fountain in the middle of it, gushing up towards the ceiling
out of a marble basin, and falling back into it with a
Tanglewood Tales |
