| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: One evening, under a calm sky, amid the silence and peace of that
rural haven, the doctor saw, from a distance, that the colonel was
loading his pistols. The old man felt then that the young man had
ceased to hope; he felt the blood rushing to his heart, and if he
conquered the vertigo that threatened him, it was because he would
rather see his niece living and mad than dead. He hastened up.
"What are you doing?" he said.
"That is for me," replied the colonel, pointing to a pistol already
loaded, which was lying on the bench; "and this is for her," he added,
as he forced the wad into the weapon he held.
The countess was lying on the ground beside him, playing with the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Impossible!" exclaimed the King. "I'll have no clumsy beasts enter
my palace, to overturn and break all my pretty nick-nacks. When the
rest of your friends are transformed you can return to the upper
world, and go about your business."
"As for that, we have no business, when our friends are gone," said
the Lion. "So we do not care much what becomes of us."
Dorothy begged to be allowed to go first into the palace, but Tiktok
firmly maintained that the slave should face danger before the
mistress. The Scarecrow agreed with him in that, so the Nome King
opened the door for the machine man, who tramped into the palace to
meet his fate. Then his Majesty returned to his throne and puffed his
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: eam materiam quae erat caesa conversam ad hostem conlocabat et pro vallo
ad utrumque latus extruebat. Incredibili celeritate magno spatio paucis
diebus confecto, cum iam pecus atque extrema impedimenta a nostris
tenerentur, ipsi densiores silvas peterent, eius modi sunt tempestates
consecutae uti opus necessario intermitteretur et continuatione imbrium
diutius sub pellibus milites contineri non possent. Itaque vastatis
omnibus eorum agris, vicis aedificiisque incensis, Caesar exercitum
reduxit et in Aulercis Lexoviisque, reliquis item civitatibus quae proxime
bellum fecerant, in hibernis conlocavit.
C. IULI CAESARIS
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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 The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: the rud begun ter git pushed one side, an' they was a awful stompin'
an' splashin' in the mud. But mind ye, Luther he didn't see nothin'
at all, only just the bendin' trees an' underbrush.
'Then fur
ahead where Bishop's Brook goes under the rud he heerd a awful
creakin' an' strainin' on the bridge, an' says he could tell the
saound o' wood a-startin' to crack an' split. An' all the whiles
he never see a thing, only them trees an' bushes a-bendin'. An'
when the swishin' saound got very fur off - on the rud towards
Wizard Whateley's an' Sentinel Hill - Luther he had the guts ter
step up whar he'd heerd it fust an' look at the graound. It was
The Dunwich Horror |
