| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: provoke us into justice.
O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny,
but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with
oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa,
have long expelled her--Europe regards her like a stranger, and England
hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare
in time an asylum for mankind.
OF THE PRESENT _ABILITY_ OF _AMERICA_, WITH SOME MISCELLANEOUS _REFLECTIONS_
I have never met with a man, either in England or America, who hath not
confessed his opinion that a separation between the countries,
would take place one time or other: And there is no instance, in which we
Common Sense |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: sense, and the excessive stupidity that can neither take in nor give
out any idea. He was thoroughly impressed with the idea of doing his
duty in society; and, doing his utmost to be agreeable, had adopted
the smile of an opera dancer as his sole method of expression.
Satisfied, he smiled; dissatisfied, he smiled again. He smiled at good
news and evil tidings; with slight modifications the smile did duty on
all occasions. If he was positively obliged to express his personal
approval, a complacent laugh reinforced the smile; but he never
vouchsafed a word until driven to the last extremity. A tete-a-tete
put him in the one embarrassment of his vegetative existence, for then
he was obliged to look for something to say in the vast blank of his
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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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: but the other and the healthier side of that sadness which they had
as heathens. Read which you will of the old sagas--heathen or half-
Christian--the Eyrbiggia, Viga Glum, Burnt Niall, Grettir the
Strong, and, above all, Snorri Sturluson's "Heimskringla" itself--
and you will see at once how sad they are. There is, in the old
sagas, none of that enjoyment of life which shines out everywhere in
Greek poetry, even through its deepest tragedies. Not in
complacency with Nature's beauty, but in the fierce struggle with
her wrath, does the Norseman feel pleasure. Nature to him was not,
as in Mr. Longfellow's exquisite poem, {3} the kind old nurse, to
take him on her knee and whisper to him, ever anew, the story
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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 The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: with a clatter that echoed throughout the forest.
So, being all of one mind, they turned southward,
traveling steadily on until the woods were left behind
and the landscape turned from purple tints to blue
tints, which assured them they had entered the Country
of the Munchkins.
"Now I feel myself more safe," said the Scarecrow
Bear. "I know this country pretty well, having been
made here by a Munchkin farmer and having wandered over
these lovely blue lands many times. Seems to me,
indeed, that I even remember that group of three tall
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
