| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: chain, and you will have a faint idea of the exterior of this strange
individual, to whose appearance the dusky light of the landing lent
fantastic coloring. You might have thought that a canvas of Rembrandt
without its frame had walked silently up the stairway, bringing with
it the dark atmosphere which was the sign-manual of the great master.
The old man cast a look upon the youth which was full of sagacity;
then he rapped three times upon the door, and said, when it was opened
by a man in feeble health, apparently about forty years of age, "Good-
morning, maitre."
Porbus bowed respectfully, and made way for his guest, allowing the
youth to pass in at the same time, under the impression that he came
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: And fly on farther for another breakfast?"
"But why forget the fortune of the worm,"
I said, "if in the dryness you deplore
Salvation centred and endured? Your Norcross
May have been one for many to have envied."
"Salvation? Fortune? Would the worm say that?
He might; and therefore I dismiss the worm
With all dry things but one. Figures away,
Do you begin to see this man a little?
Do you begin to see him in the air,
With all the vacant horrors of his outline
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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 Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: mar the gold or put your dusty feet on the embroidery."
Button-Bright was delighted to ride behind such a superb team, and he
told Dorothy it made him feel like an actor in a circus. As the
strides of the animals brought them nearer to the Emerald City
every one bowed respectfully to the children, as well as to the Tin
Woodman, Tik-tok, and the shaggy man, who were following behind.
The Yellow Hen had perched upon the back of the chariot, where she
could tell Dorothy more about her wonderful chickens as they rode.
And so the grand chariot came finally to the high wall surrounding the
City, and paused before the magnificent jewel-studded gates.
These were opened by a cheerful-looking little man who wore green
The Road to 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 Walking by Henry David Thoreau: always point due southwest, it is true, and it has good authority
for this variation, but it always settles between west and
south-southwest. The future lies that way to me, and the earth
seems more unexhausted and richer on that side. The outline which
would bound my walks would be, not a circle, but a parabola, or
rather like one of those cometary orbits which have been thought
to be non-returning curves, in this case opening westward, in
which my house occupies the place of the sun. I turn round and
round irresolute sometimes for a quarter of an hour, until I
decide, for a thousandth time, that I will walk into the
southwest or west. Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go
Walking |
