| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: with high rank, and married a noble's daughter. Besides his
large pay, he was in receipt of a handsome income from his
estate; yet he was unable to make ends meet. What the husband
saved, the wife wasted in extravagance. One day Simeon went to
the estate to collect his income, when the steward informed him
that there was no income, saying:
"We have neither horses, cows, fishing-nets, nor implements; it
is necessary first to buy everything, and then to look for
income."
Simeon thereupon went to his father and said:
"You are rich, batiushka [little father], but you have given
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: Vanished, the miracles that led,
The cloud at noon, the flame at night;
The vision that he wing'd and sped
Falls backward, baffled, from the height;
Yet in the wreck of these he stands
Upheld by something grim and strong;
Some stubborn instinct lifts a song
And nerves him, heart and hands:
He does not dare to call it hope;--
It is not aught that seeks reward--
Nor faith, that up some sunward slope
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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 Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: clapboarded little town.
II
Mrs. Todd
LATER, THERE WAS only one fault to find with this choice of a
summer lodging-place, and that was its complete lack of seclusion.
At first the tiny house of Mrs. Almira Todd, which stood with its
end to the street, appeared to be retired and sheltered enough from
the busy world, behind its bushy bit of a green garden, in which
all the blooming things, two or three gay hollyhocks and some
London-pride, were pushed back against the gray-shingled wall. It
was a queer little garden and puzzling to a stranger, the few
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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 Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: isn't broken."
Agreeing to this, Ruggedo took the match and
lighted it. He gave one look and then blew out
the match.
"Ugly as ever!" he said with a shudder. "So it
wasn't the kiss of a Mortal Maid, after all."
"Let me try," proposed the Rose Princess, in her
sweet voice. "I am a Mortal Maid who was once a
Fairy. Perhaps my kiss will break the charm."
Files did not wholly approve of this, but he was
too generous to interfere. So the Rose Princess
Tik-Tok of Oz |
