| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: shall be good, although in all this they have had no faith in
God's grace and approval. Indeed, they consider the works best
of all, when they have done many, great and long works without
any such confidence, and they look for good only after the works
are done; and so they build their confidence not on divine favor,
but on the works they have done, that is, on sand and water, from
which they must at last take a cruel fall, as Christ says,
Matthew vii. This good-will and favor, on which our confidence
rests, was proclaimed by the angels from heaven, when they sang
on Christmas night: "Gloria in excelsis Deo, Glory to God in the
highest, peace to earth, gracious favor to man."
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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: The nicest Ghoul that they can see.
"The Spectres said the place was low,
And that you kept bad wine:
So, as a Phantom had to go,
And I was first, of course, you know,
I couldn't well decline."
"No doubt," said I, "they settled who
Was fittest to be sent
Yet still to choose a brat like you,
To haunt a man of forty-two,
Was no great compliment!"
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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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: Dickens and "The Accursed Prince" by Remizov.
Korsh Theatre.--"Much Ado about Nothing" by
Shakespeare and "Le Misanthrope" and "Georges Dandin"
by Moli=8Are.
Dramatic Theatre.--"Alexander I" by Merezhkovsky.
Theatre of Drama and Comedy.-- "Little Dorrit" by Dickens
and "The King's Barber" by Lunacharsky.
Besides these, other theatres were playing
K. R. (Konstantin Romanov), Ostrovsky, Potapenko,
Vinitchenko, etc. The two Studios of the Moscow Art
Theatre were playing "Rosmersholm" and a repertoire of
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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 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: to go away with her in a balloon; but the balloon escaped too soon and
carried me back alone. After many adventures I reached Omaha, only to
find that all my old friends were dead or had moved away. So, having
nothing else to do, I joined a circus again, and made my balloon
ascensions until the earthquake caught me."
"That is quite a history," said Ozma; "but there is a little more
history about the Land of Oz that you do not seem to
understand--perhaps for the reason that no one ever told it you. Many
years before you came here this Land was united under one Ruler, as it
is now, and the Ruler's name was always 'Oz,' which means in our
language 'Great and Good'; or, if the Ruler happened to be a woman,
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
