| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Button-Bright isn't a fox," explained the shaggy man. "He's only
wearing a fox head for a time, until he can get his own head back."
"Oh, I see," remarked the donkey, waving its left ear reflectively.
"I'm sorry we made such a mistake, and had all our work and worry
for nothing."
The other donkeys by this time were sitting up and examining the
strangers with big, glassy eyes. They made a queer picture, indeed;
for they wore wide, white collars around their necks and the collars
had many scallops and points. The gentlemen-donkeys wore high
pointed caps set between their great ears, and the lady-donkeys wore
sunbonnets with holes cut in the top for the ears to stick through.
The Road to Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether:
'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile,
'T may be, again to make me wander thither:
'Wander,' a word for shadows like myself,
As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.
XV.
Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east!
My heart doth charge the watch; the morning rise
Doth cite each moving sense from idle rest.
Not daring trust the office of mine eyes,
While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark,
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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 On Revenues by Xenophon: [8] See Zurborg, "Comm." p. 24.
[9] See Aristot. "Pol." iv. 15, 3.
With regard to the other sources of revenue which I contemplate, I
admit, it is different. For these I recognise the necessity of a
capital[10] to begin with. I am not, however, without good hope that
the citizens of this state will contribute heartily to such an object,
when I reflect on the large sums subscribed by the state on various
late occasions, as, for instance, when reinforcements were sent to the
Arcadians under the command of Lysistratus,[11] and again at the date
of the generalship of Hegesileos.[12] I am well aware that ships of
war are frequently despatched and that too[13] although it is
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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 Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: "I would be both judge and hangman for you, my man, and never turn
a hair," returned the Captain. "But I get beyond that: it mayn't
be sound theology, but it's common sense, that what is good is
useful too - or there and thereabout, for I don't set up to be a
thinker. Now, where would a story go to if there were no virtuous
characters?"
"If you go to that," replied Silver, "where would a story begin, if
there wasn't no villains?"
"Well, that's pretty much my thought," said Captain Smollett. "The
Author has to get a story; that's what he wants; and to get a
story, and to have a man like the doctor (say) given a proper
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