| 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: you'll never find another Steward as good as I am. But there are a
hundred Nomes better fitted to command your army, and your Generals
get thrown away so often that I have no desire to be one of them."
"Ah, there is some truth in your remarks, Kaliko," remarked the King,
deciding not to throw the scepter. "Summon my army to assemble in the
Great Cavern."
Kaliko bowed and retired, and in a few minutes returned to say that
the army was assembled. So the King went out upon a balcony that
overlooked the Great Cavern, where fifty thousand Nomes, all armed
with swords and pikes, stood marshaled in military array.
When they were not required as soldiers all these Nomes were metal
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 The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: together, and below them, every nerve strained, sat the others.
The mothers and the cubs were cantering off to their lairs;
for when the pheeal cries it is no time for weak things to
be abroad.
They could hear nothing except the Waingunga rushing and
gurgling in the dark, and the light evening winds among the
tree-tops, till suddenly across the river a wolf called. It was
no wolf of the Pack, for they were all at the Rock. The note
changed to a long, despairing bay; and "Dhole!" it said, "Dhole!
dhole! dhole!" They heard tired feet on the rocks, and a gaunt
wolf, streaked with red on his flanks, his right fore-paw
The Second Jungle Book |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: they will pay their mother for their board out of it.
Altogether, they will have five hundred a-year amongst them,
and what on earth can four women want for more than
that?--They will live so cheap! Their housekeeping will
be nothing at all. They will have no carriage, no horses,
and hardly any servants; they will keep no company,
and can have no expenses of any kind! Only conceive
how comfortable they will be! Five hundred a year! I am
sure I cannot imagine how they will spend half of it;
and as to your giving them more, it is quite absurd to think
of it. They will be much more able to give YOU something."
Sense and Sensibility |
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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: in a duel of this kind give those who know Paris a far better picture
of the city than all the fancy portraits that they paint. Some of you
think that you know a thing or two," he continued, glancing round at
Nathan, Bixiou, La Palferine, and Lousteau, "but the king of the
ground is a certain Count, now busy ranging himself. In his time, he
was supposed to be the cleverest, adroitest, canniest, boldest,
stoutest, most subtle and experienced of all the pirates, who,
equipped with fine manners, yellow kid gloves, and cabs, have ever
sailed or ever will sail upon the stormy seas of Paris. He fears
neither God nor man. He applies in private life the principles that
guide the English Cabinet. Up to the time of his marriage, his life
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