| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master Key by L. Frank Baum: Rob yawned, for he thought the Demon's speeches were growing rather
tiresome. Perhaps the genius noticed this rudeness, for he continued:
"I regret, of course, that you are a boy instead of a grown man, for
it will appear singular to your friends that so thoughtless a youth
should seemingly have mastered the secrets that have baffled your most
learned scientists. But that can not be helped, and presently you
will become, through my aid, the most powerful and wonderful personage
in all the world."
"Thank you," said Rob, meekly. "It'll be no end of fun."
"Fun!" echoed the Demon, scornfully. "But never mind; I must use the
material Fate has provided for me, and make the best of it."
The Master Key |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: tutelage of the Syrians and Egyptians; namely, the governing with
tolerable justice those who cannot govern themselves, and making them
better and more prosperous people, by compelling them to submit to law.
I do not know when this excuse is a sufficient one. God showed that it
was so for several centuries in the case of the Romans; God will show
whether it is in the case of our Indian empire: but this I say, that
the Turkish empire has not even that excuse to plead; as is proved by
the patent fact that the whole East, the very garden of the old world,
has become a desert and a ruin under the upas-blight of their
government.
As for the regeneration of Turkey, it is a question whether the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: cruelly still by the ever-increasing agony of the duel he was fighting
with himself since his passion for gold had turned to his own injury,
--a species of uncompleted suicide which kept him at once in the
miseries of life and in those of death.
Never was a Vice more punished by itself. A miser, locked by accident
into the subterranean strong-room that contains his treasures, has,
like Sardanapalus, the happiness of dying in the midst of his wealth.
But Cornelius, the robber and the robbed, knowing the secret of
neither the one nor the other, possessed and did not possess his
treasure,--a novel, fantastic, but continually terrible torture.
Sometimes, becoming forgetful, he would leave the little gratings of
|
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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: "They will be here in a moment."
"My dear, hide yourself. Ho there, somebody. Hi there, you girl. Come
here, you fool; what are you afraid of? The officers are coming here;
tell them I am not at home, that I went out early this morning, that I
am not coming back. Do you understand? Go and repeat it to all the
servants. Be off, quick."
Having uttered these words, he hurriedly slipped on his dressing-gown,
and ran off to shut himself up in the coach-house, which he thought
the safest hiding-place. But he fancied that he might be noticed in
the corner in which he had taken refuge.
"This will be better," said he to himself, letting down the steps of
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
