| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: Talk of troubles! No words could ever make you understand the misery
of those who loved him for his own sake."
"But where is his snuff-box?" asked La Fosseuse.
"It is in a box at Grenoble," the commandant replied.
"I will go over to see it, if you will let me. To think that you have
something in your possession that his fingers have touched! . . . Had
he a well-shaped hand?"
"Very."
"Can it be true that he is dead? Come, tell me the real truth?"
"Yes, my dear child, he is dead; there is no doubt about it."
"I was such a little girl in 1815. I was not tall enough to see
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: their flower-books all that Fairy hands had written there. Some
studied how to watch the tender buds, when to spread them to the
sunlight, and when to shelter them from rain; how to guard the
ripening seeds, and when to lay them in the warm earth or send them
on the summer wind to far off hills and valleys, where other Fairy
hands would tend and cherish them, till a sisterhood of happy flowers
sprang up to beautify and gladden the lonely spot where they had
fallen. Others learned to heal the wounded insects, whose frail limbs
a breeze could shatter, and who, were it not for Fairy hands, would
die ere half their happy summer life had gone. Some learned how by
pleasant dreams to cheer and comfort mortal hearts, by whispered words
Flower Fables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Perhaps that's true," answered Billina, thoughtfully. "But if a Kansas
farmer sold me to some one, what would he call me?--a hen or a chicken!"
"You are not a Kansas farmer, Billina," replied the girl, "and you said--"
"Never mind that, Dorothy. I'm going. I won't say good-bye, because
I'm coming back. Keep up your courage, for I'll see you a little later."
Then Billina gave several loud "cluck-clucks" that seemed to make the
fat little King MORE nervous than ever, and marched through the
entrance into the enchanted palace.
"I hope I've seen the last of THAT bird," declared the monarch,
seating himself again in his throne and mopping the perspiration from
his forehead with his rock-colored handkerchief. "Hens are bothersome
Ozma 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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: he started.
[6] Reading {upodeigmata}, "finger-post signs," as it were, or "draft
in outline"; al. {upomnemata} = "memoranda."
[7] "Gentle, and accustomed to the hand, and fond of man."
[8] Lit. "if he knows how to provide that hunger and thirst, etc.,
should be felt by the colt in solitude, whilst food and drink,
etc., come through help of man."
The groom should have standing orders to take his charge through
crowds, and to make him familiar with all sorts of sights and noises;
and if the colt shows sign of apprehension at them,[9] he must teach
him--not by cruel, but by gentle handling--that they are not really
On Horsemanship |
