| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Wiljon the Winkie came to the door and looked out. He was still
standing in the doorway when the Frogman approached and said with a
haughty croak, "Tell me, my good man, have you seen a diamond-studded
gold dishpan?"
"No, nor have I seen a copper-plated lobster," replied Wiljon in an
equally haughty tone.
The Frogman stared at him and said, "Do not be insolent, fellow!"
"No," added Cayke the Cookie Cook hastily, "you must be very polite to
the great Frogman, for he is the wisest creature in all the world."
"Who says that?" inquired Wiljon.
"He says so himself," replied Cayke, and the Frogman nodded and
The Lost Princess of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: cashier, he loves his wife, and that wife grows tired of her lot, has
ambitions, or merely some vanity in her composition, the cashier is
undone. Search the chronicles of the counting-house. You will not find
a single instance of a cashier attaining A POSITION, as it is called.
They are sent to the hulks; they go to foreign parts; they vegetate on
a second floor in the Rue Saint-Louis among the market gardens of the
Marais. Some day, when the cashiers of Paris come to a sense of their
real value, a cashier will be hardly obtainable for money. Still,
certain it is that there are people who are fit for nothing but to be
cashiers, just as the bent of a certain order of mind inevitably makes
for rascality. But, oh marvel of our civilization! Society rewards
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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 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: enough, in those huge vacant courts.
CHAPTER XLII.
WAR!
I FOUND Clarence alone in his quarters, drowned in
melancholy; and in place of the electric light, he
had reinstituted the ancient rag-lamp, and sat there in
a grisly twilight with all curtains drawn tight. He
sprang up and rushed for me eagerly, saying:
"Oh, it's worth a billion milrays to look upon a
live person again!"
He knew me as easily as if I hadn't been disguised
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
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 Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: times a day), he at once, at her command, relaxed his hold on the little
jack-rabbit. The poor little thing was still breathing, breathing indeed with
all his might and main, so that his heart thumped against his little brown
sides with all the regularity of a Rider Engine. Tattine's first thought was
for the rabbit, and she held it close to her, stroking it with one little
brown trembling hand and saying, "There! there! Hush, you little dear; you're
safe now, don't be frightened! Tattine wouldn't hurt you for the world." Her
next thought was for Doctor, and she turned on him with a torrent of abuse,
that ought to have made the hair of that young M.D. stand on end. "Oh, you
cruel, CRUEL dog! whatever made you do such a thing as this? I never dreamt it
of you, never." At this Betsy's tail dropped between her legs, for she was a
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