| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: longing is like the depth of the sea.
Therefore it is only I that am left forlorn,
-- only I that am left to wander along.]
On the evening of the day after this poem had been sent, Tomotada was
summoned to appear before the Lord Hosokawa. The youth at once suspected
that his confidence had been betrayed; and he could not hope, if his letter
had been seen by the daimyo, to escape the severest penalty. "Now he will
order my death," thought Tomotada;-- "but I do not care to live unless
Aoyagi be restored to me. Besides, if the death-sentence be passed, I can
at least try to kill Hosokawa." He slipped his swords into his girdle, and
hastened to the palace.
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: Muller was quite satisfied with the result of his visit to the
accused. He hurried to the nearest cab stand and entered one of
the carriages waiting there. He gave the driver Mrs. Klingmayer's
address. It was about two o'clock in the afternoon now and Muller
had had nothing to eat yet. But he was quite unaware of the fact
as his mind was so busy that no mere physical sensation could
divert his attention for a moment. Muller never seemed to need
sleep or food when he was on the trail, particularly not in the
fascinating first stages of the case when it was his imagination
alone, catching at trifles unnoticed by others, combining them in
masterly fashion to an ordered whole, that first led the seekers
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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 Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: added: "What will become of the Munchkin boy?"
"I don't know," she said, shaking her head
thoughtfully. "Ozma will see him 'bout it, of
course, and then she'll punish him. But how,
I don't know, 'cause no one ever has been
punished in Oz since I knew anything about
the place. Too bad, Shaggy Man, isn't it?"
While they were talking Scraps had been
roaming around the room and looking at all
the pretty things it contained. She had carried
Ojo's basket in her hand, until now, when she
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: variety, and in such numbers that whole beds of limestone are
composed of their disjointed fragments; but which have vanished out
of our modern seas, we know not why, till, a few years since,
almost the only known living species was the exquisite and rare
Pentacrinus asteria, from deep water off the Windward Isles of the
West Indies.
Of this you will see a specimen or two both at Liverpool and in the
British Museum; and near them, probably, specimens of the new-old
Crinoids, discovered of late years by Professor Sars, Mr. Gwyn
Jeffreys, Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Wyville Thomson, and the other deep-
sea disciples of the mythic Glaucus, the fisherman, who, enamoured
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