| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: With many misgivings lest the wicked Queen discover
that he had now lost his magic powers, the boy ordered
her to be admitted, and she soon entered the room and
bowed low before him, in mock respect.
Cor was a big woman, almost as tall as King Gos. She
had flashing black eyes and the dark complexion you see
on gypsies. Her temper, when irritated, was something
dreadful, and her face wore an evil expression which
she tried to cover by smiling sweetly -- often when she
meant the most mischief.
"I have come," said she in a low voice, "to render
Rinkitink In Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: They have been very fortunate lately, however. They have
had my own divorce-case and Alan Campbell's suicide.
Now they have got the mysterious disappearance of an artist.
Scotland Yard still insists that the man in the grey ulster
who left for Paris by the midnight train on the ninth of November
was poor Basil, and the French police declare that Basil never
arrived in Paris at all. I suppose in about a fortnight we shall
be told that he has been seen in San Francisco. It is an odd thing,
but every one who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco.
It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions
of the next world."
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: above, now in ruins; and below, perhaps, the picturesque new
schloss, with its French fountains and gardens, French nymphs of
marble, and of flesh and blood likewise, which the prince has
partially paid for, by selling a few hundred young men to the
English to fight the Yankees. The river, too, is picturesque, for
the old bridge has not been repaired since it was blown up in the
Seven Years' War; and there is but a single lazy barge floating down
the stream, owing to the tolls and tariffs of his Serene Highness;
the village is picturesque, for the flower of the young men are at
the wars, and the place is tumbling down; and the two old peasants
in the foreground, with the single goat and the hamper of vine-
|
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 Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: shore. Then he glanced at me, and looked all about him as pleased
as a child.
"My quotation was from Paradise Lost: the greatest of poems,
I suppose you know?" and I nodded. "There's nothing that ranks, to
my mind, with Paradise Lost; it's all lofty, all lofty," he
continued. "Shakespeare was a great poet; he copied life, but you
have to put up with a great deal of low talk."
I now remembered that Mrs. Todd had told me one day that
Captain Littlepage had overset his mind with too much reading; she
had also made dark reference to his having "spells" of some
unexplainable nature. I could not help wondering what errand had
|
