| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: Sokolnikov last summer is put into practice. This is a
general exchange of new money for old, after which the old
will be declared invalid. "Of course," said Krestinsky, "they
will cheat in every possible way, scattering out the money
among a number of friends and relations. But something
will have been done in cleaning them up, and that process
will be completed by a second exchange of money later on."
Fifteen milliards of new notes for the first exchange are
already printed, but they think that twenty milliards will be
necessary.
I asked if the new money was better looking than the old, if
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: That skirts the cold cold Sea.
Ye Carpette Knyghte
I have a horse - a ryghte good horse -
Ne doe Y envye those
Who scoure ye playne yn headye course
Tyll soddayne on theyre nose
They lyghte wyth unexpected force
Yt ys - a horse of clothes.
I have a saddel - "Say'st thou soe?
Wyth styrruppes, Knyghte, to boote?"
I sayde not that - I answere "Noe" -
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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 Jolly Corner by Henry James: he found he could perfectly "work" without exciting remark; no one
was in the least the wiser for it; even Alice Staverton, who was
moreover a well of discretion, didn't quite fully imagine.
He let himself in and let himself out with the assurance of calm
proprietorship; and accident so far favoured him that, if a fat
Avenue "officer" had happened on occasion to see him entering at
eleven-thirty, he had never yet, to the best of his belief, been
noticed as emerging at two. He walked there on the crisp November
nights, arrived regularly at the evening's end; it was as easy to
do this after dining out as to take his way to a club or to his
hotel. When he left his club, if he hadn't been dining out, it was
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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 Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "No, indeed. Ruggedo's caverns are beneath the
earth's surface, where no Rainbow can ever
penetrate. But I've heard of the Metal Monarch. He
is also called the Nome King, you know, and he has
made trouble for a good many people --mortals and
fairies--in his time," said Polychrome.
"Do you fear him, then?" asked the Princess,
anxiously.
"No one can harm a Daughter of the Rainbow,"
said Polychrome proudly. "I'm a sky fairy."
"Then," said Betsy, quickly, "you will be able
Tik-Tok of Oz |
