| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: wisely. "I think I know now what these people are like."
"So do I," announced Dorothy.
"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo!" sobbed the woman, giving way to a fresh burst
of grief.
"What's wrong now?" asked the Shaggy Man.
"Oh, suppose I had pricked my foot!" she wailed. "Then the doctors
would have cut my foot off, and I'd be lamed for life!"
"Surely, ma'am," replied the Wizard, "and if you'd pricked your nose
they might cut your head off. But you see you didn't."
"But I might have!" she exclaimed, and began to cry again. So they
left her and drove away in their wagon. And her husband came out and
The Emerald City of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: Howard Littlefield. "Congress didn't understand the right system. Now, if
I'd been running the thing, I'd have arranged it so that the drinker himself
was licensed, and then we could have taken care of the shiftless workman--kept
him from drinking--and yet not 've interfered with the rights--with the
personal liberty--of fellows like ourselves."
They bobbed their heads, looked admiringly at one another, and stated, "That's
so, that would be the stunt."
"The thing that worries me is that a lot of these guys will take to cocaine,"
sighed Eddie Swanson.
They bobbed more violently, and groaned, "That's so, there is a danger of
that."
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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 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: instructed in the truths of heaven and earth? What canst thou do
for the child in this kind?"
"I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this!"
answered Hester Prynne, laying her finger on the red token.
"Woman, it is thy badge of shame!" replied the stern magistrate.
"It is because of the stain which that letter indicates that we
would transfer thy child to other hands. "
"Nevertheless," said the mother, calmly, though growing more
The Scarlet Letter |
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 Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: color-cells do not make another man. He had always been a simple,
sincere, friendly soul, beloved of men and women alike, and he
was that now. Eudora held out her hand, and her eyes fell before
the eyes of the man, in an absurd fashion for such a stately
creature as she. But the man himself acted like a great happy
overgrown school-boy.
"Hullo, Eudora," he said again.
"Hullo," said she, falteringly.
It was inconceivable that they should meet in such wise after the
years of separation and longing which they had both undergone;
but each took refuge, as it were, in a long-past youth, even
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