| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: strong claws. But he was still tin. He was a Tin Owl,
with tin legs and beak and eyes and feathers. When he
flew to the back of a chair and perched upon it, his
tin feathers rattled against one another with a tinny
clatter. The Giantess seemed much amused by the Tin
Owl's appearance, for her laugh was big and jolly.
"You're not liable to get lost," said she, "for your
wings and feathers will make a racket wherever you go.
And, on my word, a Tin Owl is so rare and pretty that
it is an improvement on the ordinary bird. I did not
intend to make you tin, but I forgot to wish you to be
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: feebleness of age, or to the development of the quarrel between philosophy
and poetry in Plato's own mind, or perhaps, in some degree, to a
carelessness about artistic effect, when he was absorbed in abstract ideas,
we can hardly be wrong in assuming, amid such a variety of indications,
derived from style as well as subject, that the Philebus belongs to the
later period of his life and authorship. But in this, as in all the later
writings of Plato, there are not wanting thoughts and expressions in which
he rises to his highest level.
The plan is complicated, or rather, perhaps, the want of plan renders the
progress of the dialogue difficult to follow. A few leading ideas seem to
emerge: the relation of the one and many, the four original elements, the
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: Natal or press on to Zululand. The rumour of coming war
suggested that the first would be our better course, while the
Boer's story as to the investigation of Rodd's death pointed the
other way. Really I did not know which to do, and as usual
Anscombe and Heda seemed inclined to leave the decision to me. I
think that after all Natal would have gained the day had it not
been for a singular circumstance, not a flash of lightning this
time. Indeed, I had almost made up my mind to risk trouble and
inquiry as to Rodd's death, remembering that in Natal these two
young people could get married, which, being in loco parentis, I
thought it desirable they should do as soon as possible, if only
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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 An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: week's furlough?
We were up by six, the day we were to leave. They had taken so
little note of us that I hardly thought they would have
condescended on a bill. But they did, with some smart particulars
too; and we paid in a civilised manner to an uninterested clerk,
and went out of that hotel, with the india-rubber bags, unremarked.
No one cared to know about us. It is not possible to rise before a
village; but Compiegne was so grown a town, that it took its ease
in the morning; and we were up and away while it was still in
dressing-gown and slippers. The streets were left to people
washing door-steps; nobody was in full dress but the cavaliers upon
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