| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: "What has become of our own boat, in which we came
from Pingaree?" asked Bilbil.
"We left it on the shore of Regos," replied the
Prince, "but I wonder if we could not get it again."
"Why don't you ask the White Pearl?" suggested
Rinkitink.
"That is a good idea," returned the boy, and at once
he drew the White Pearl from its silken bag and held it
to his ear. Then he asked: "How may I regain our boat?"
The Voice of the Pearl replied: "Go to the south end
of the Island of Coregos, and clap your hands three
Rinkitink In Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: run down his back, and having fastened his fur coats again and
wrapped himself up, he snuggled into a corner of the sledge
intending to wait patiently. Suddenly, above the monotonous
roar of the wind, he clearly distinguished another new and
living sound. It steadily strengthened, and having become
quite clear diminished just as gradually. Beyond all doubt it
was a wolf, and he was so near that the movement of his jaws as
he changed his cry was brought down the wind. Vasili
Andreevich turned back the collar of his coat and listened
attentively. Mukhorty too strained to listen, moving his ears,
and when the wolf had ceased its howling he shifted from foot
Master and Man |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: most. A great deal that I had in fact learned had been forced upon
me by his wife. There was something even irritating in Miss
Anvoy's crude conscientiousness, and I wondered why, after all, she
couldn't have let him alone and been content to entrust George
Gravener with the purchase of the good house. I was sure he would
have driven a bargain, got something excellent and cheap. I
laughed louder even than she, I temporised, I failed her; I told
her I must think over her case. I professed a horror of
responsibilities and twitted her with her own extravagant passion
for them. It wasn't really that I was afraid of the scandal, the
moral discredit for the Fund; what troubled me most was a feeling
|
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 My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: The distance, however, is not the chief trouble. The nearer are
the lines of a slave state and the borders of a free one, the
greater the peril. Hired kidnappers infest these borders. Then,
too, we knew that merely reaching a free state did not free us;
that, wherever caught, we could be returned to slavery. We could
see no spot on this side the ocean, where we could be free. We
had heard of Canada, the real Canaan of the American bondmen,
simply as a country to which the wild goose and the swan repaired
at the end of winter, to escape the heat of summer, but not as
the home of man. I knew something of theology, but nothing of
geography. I really did not, at that time, know that there was a
My Bondage and My Freedom |
