| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Jellia, my dear?"
79
"He asked if you were aware that one of your eyes is painted larger than the
other," said the girl, mischievously.
"Don't you believe her, your Majesty, cried Jack.
"Oh, I don't," answered the Scarecrow, calmly. Then, casting a sharp look at
the girl, he asked:
"Are you quite certain you understand the languages of both the Gillikins
and the Munchkins?"
"Quite certain, your Majesty," said Jellia Jamb, trying hard not to laugh in
the face of royalty.
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: trouble me."
The abbe, Bongrand, and Savinien were lost in conjectures and
suspicions. Together with Tiennette, La Bougival, and two persons on
whom the abbe could rely, they kept the closest watch and were on
their guard night and day for a week; but no indiscretion could betray
Goupil, whose machinations were known to himself only. There were no
more serenades and no more letters, and little by little the watch
relaxed. Bongrand thought the author of the wrong was frightened;
Savinien believed that the procureur du roi to whom he had sent the
letters received by Ursula and himself and his mother, had taken steps
to put an end to the persecution.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: fallen from me the last chain--
The boundless roareth around me, far away sparkle for me space and time,--
well! cheer up! old heart!"--
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of
rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children,
unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!
6.
If my virtue be a dancer's virtue, and if I have often sprung with both
feet into golden-emerald rapture:
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: landward by a bulk of shattered mountains. In every crevice of
that barrier the forest harboured, roosting and nestling there like
birds about a ruin; and far above, it greened and roughened the
razor edges of the summit.
Under the eastern shore, our schooner, now bereft of any breeze,
continued to creep in: the smart creature, when once under way,
appearing motive in herself. From close aboard arose the bleating
of young lambs; a bird sang in the hillside; the scent of the land
and of a hundred fruits or flowers flowed forth to meet us; and,
presently, a house or two appeared, standing high upon the ankles
of the hills, and one of these surrounded with what seemed a
|
