| 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: can see there is no one in the hole but Button-Bright."
"Perhaps Button-Bright is Ozma," suggested the King.
"And perhaps he isn't!
Ozma is a girl, and Button-Bright is a boy."
"Your Pink Bear must be out of order," said the Wizard, "for, this
time at least, his machinery has caused him to make an untrue
statement."
The Bear King was so angry at this remark that he turned away, holding
the Pink Bear in his paws, and refused to discuss the matter in any
further way.
"At any rate," said the Frogman, "the Pink Bear has led us to your boy
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 Critias by Plato: human voices.
The plain around the city was highly cultivated and sheltered from the
north by mountains; it was oblong, and where falling out of the straight
line followed the circular ditch, which was of an incredible depth. This
depth received the streams which came down from the mountains, as well as
the canals of the interior, and found a way to the sea. The entire country
was divided into sixty thousand lots, each of which was a square of ten
stadia; and the owner of a lot was bound to furnish the sixth part of a
war-chariot, so as to make up ten thousand chariots, two horses and riders
upon them, a pair of chariot-horses without a seat, and an attendant and
charioteer, two hoplites, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters,
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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 Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: manifestations which external causes bring about in their workings
on the uniform character of the nature of man. Yet, after all is
said, these are perhaps but very general statements: the ordinary
effects of peace and war are dwelt on, but there is no real
analysis of the immediate causes and general laws of the phenomena
of life, nor does Thucydides seem to recognise the truth that if
humanity proceeds in circles, the circles are always widening.
Perhaps we may say that with him the philosophy of history is
partly in the metaphysical stage, and see, in the progress of this
idea from Herodotus to Polybius, the exemplification of the Comtian
Law of the three stages of thought, the theological, the
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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 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: Why a battle, in the first place? Here the question of war comes up.
Is war less of a scourge than an uprising is of a calamity? And then,
are all uprisings calamities? And what if the revolt of July did
cost a hundred and twenty millions? The establishment of Philip
V. in Spain cost France two milliards. Even at the same price,
we should prefer the 14th of July. However, we reject these figures,
which appear to be reasons and which are only words. An uprising
being given, we examine it by itself. In all that is said by the
doctrinarian objection above presented, there is no question of
anything but effect, we seek the cause.
We will be explicit.
Les Miserables |
