| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: all worship heartily, as to a god, and sent him with a ship
to his own dear country, with gifts of bronze, and of gold,
and raiment in plenty. This was the last word of the tale,
when sweet sleep came speedily upon him, sleep that loosens
the limbs of men, unknitting the cares of his soul.
Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, turned to new thoughts.
When she deemed that Odysseus had taken his fill of love
and sleep, straightway she aroused from out Oceanus the
golden-throned Dawn, to bear light to men. Then Odysseus
gat him from his soft bed, and laid this charge on his
wife, saying:
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Not with so fierce a rage the foaming flood
Roars, when he finds his rapid course withstood;
Bears down the dams with unresisted sway,
And sweeps the cattle and the cots away.
These eyes beheld him when he march'd between
The brother kings: I saw th' unhappy queen,
The hundred wives, and where old Priam stood,
To stain his hallow'd altar with his brood.
The fifty nuptial beds (such hopes had he,
So large a promise, of a progeny),
The posts, of plated gold, and hung with spoils,
Aeneid |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: minds of her hearers that a sound abroad in the night, rising
like the roar of a blast, had grown broad, deep, and terrible,
before the fated group were conscious of it. The house and all
within it trembled; the foundations of the earth seemed to be
shaken, as if this awful sound were the peal of the last trump.
Young and old exchanged one wild glance, and remained an instant,
pale, affrighted, without utterance, or power to move. Then the
same shriek burst simultaneously from all their lips.
"The Slide! The Slide!"
The simplest words must intimate, but not portray, the
unutterable horror of the catastrophe. The victims rushed from
Twice Told Tales |
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 The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: Button-Bright could only say "My!" so amazing was the sight; but his
eyes were wide open and he tried to look in every direction at the
same time, so as not to miss anything.
The shaggy man was fairly astounded at what he saw, for the graceful
and handsome buildings were covered with plates of gold and set with
emeralds so splendid and valuable that in any other part of the world
any one of them would have been worth a fortune to its owner. The
sidewalks were superb marble slabs polished as smooth as glass, and
the curbs that separated the walks from the broad street were also set
thick with clustered emeralds. There were many people on these
walks--men, women and children--all dressed in handsome garments of
The Road to Oz |
