| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: body of Santa Claus and drew tight. Before he could resist or even
cry out he was jerked from the seat of the sleigh and tumbled head
foremost into a snowbank, while the reindeer rushed onward with the
load of toys and carried it quickly out of sight and sound.
Such a surprising experience confused old Santa for a moment, and when
he had collected his senses he found that the wicked Daemons had
pulled him from the snowdrift and bound him tightly with many coils of
the stout rope. And then they carried the kidnapped Santa Claus away
to their mountain, where they thrust the prisoner into a secret cave
and chained him to the rocky wall so that he could not escape.
"Ha, ha!" laughed the Daemons, rubbing their hands together with cruel
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: are wisest. They are the magi.
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: oil paintings" in a shoe store, which are given away with every
dollar purchase of shoes--"he can paint a picture in one and a
half minutes, ain't that quick!" Howard was getting a little
troublesome. "I don't like to tell you," writes Alice, "but you
ask me, so I will have to. Howard won't mind me at all. He
wanted a book and I got `Life of General Sheridan,' and it is
awful nice, but now he don't read it at all hardly." Poor
Howard! One morning, says Alice, Mr. Holmes told him to
stay in and wait for him, as he was coming to take him out, but
Howard was disobedient, and when Mr. Holmes arrived he had gone
out. Better for Howard had he never returned! "We have written
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
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 The Economist by Xenophon: learn particulars--to know, that is, what things he has to do, and
when and how to do them; or else, if ignorant of these details, the
profit of this bailiff in the abstract may prove no greater than the
doctor's who pays a most precise attention to a sick man, visiting him
late and early, but what will serve to ease his patient's pains[2] he
knows not.
[2] Lit. "what it is to the advantage of his patient to do, is beyond
his ken."
Soc. But suppose him to have learnt the whole routine of business,
will he need aught else, or have we found at last your bailiff
absolute?[3]
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