| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: will travel from all parts of this lake to look upon my
loveliness," said Coo-ee-oh, shaking her feathers to
make the diamonds glitter more brilliantly.
"But, your Majesty, we must go home and we do not
know how to get there," Ervic persisted.
"My eyes," remarked the Diamond Swan, "are
wonderfully blue and bright and will charm all
beholders."
"Tell us how to make the boat go -- how to get back
into the island," begged Ervic and the others cried
just as earnestly: "Tell us, Coo-ee-oh; tell us!"
Glinda of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: At The Boot, which, as has been shown, was in a manner the head-
quarters of the rioters, there were not, upon this Friday night, a
dozen people. Some slept in the stable and outhouses, some in the
common room, some two or three in beds. The rest were in their
usual homes or haunts. Perhaps not a score in all lay in the
adjacent fields and lanes, and under haystacks, or near the warmth
of brick-kilns, who had not their accustomed place of rest beneath
the open sky. As to the public ways within the town, they had
their ordinary nightly occupants, and no others; the usual amount
of vice and wretchedness, but no more.
The experience of one evening, however, had taught the reckless
Barnaby Rudge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: company."
"Nay, then, God have mercy!" said De Vaux. "Yet would I rather
than my best horse I had taken that watch myself. There is
mystery in it, young man, as a plain man may descry, though he
cannot see through it. Cowardice? Pshaw! No coward ever fought
as I have seen thee do. Treachery? I cannot think traitors die
in their treason so calmly. Thou hast been trained from thy post
by some deep guile--some well-devised stratagem--the cry of some
distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look of
some merry one has taken thine eye. Never blush for it; we have
all been led aside by such gear. Come, I pray thee, make a clean
|
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 On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: county of Cambridge has 847 plants, and the little island of Anglesea 764,
but a few ferns and a few introduced plants are included in these numbers,
and the comparison in some other respects is not quite fair. We have
evidence that the barren island of Ascension aboriginally possessed under
half-a-dozen flowering plants; yet many have become naturalised on it, as
they have on New Zealand and on every other oceanic island which can be
named. In St. Helena there is reason to believe that the naturalised
plants and animals have nearly or quite exterminated many native
productions. He who admits the doctrine of the creation of each separate
species, will have to admit, that a sufficient number of the best adapted
plants and animals have not been created on oceanic islands; for man has
On the Origin of Species |
