| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: save them from such a fate.
For two or three days after this--if we call days the periods between
sleep, there being no night to divide the hours into days--our friends
were not disturbed in any way. They were even permitted to occupy the
House of the Sorcerer in peace, as if it had been their own, and to
wander in the gardens in search of food.
Once they came near to the enclosed Garden of the Clinging Vines, and
walking high into the air looked down upon it with much interest.
They saw a mass of tough green vines all matted together and writhing
and twisting around like a nest of great snakes. Everything the vines
touched they crushed, and our adventurers were indeed thankful to have
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: likewise a lover of Men; but only he that is a lover of
whatsoever things are fair and good.
XIX
Think of God more often than thou breathest.
XX
Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it
sweet to thee.
XXI
Let thy speech of God be renewed day by day, aye, rather
than thy meat and drink.
XXII
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: certainly think that no one should; and under these circumstances, let me
offer you a piece of advice (and this need not go further than ourselves).
I maintain, my friends, that every one of us should seek out the best
teacher whom he can find, first for ourselves, who are greatly in need of
one, and then for the youth, regardless of expense or anything. But I
cannot advise that we remain as we are. And if any one laughs at us for
going to school at our age, I would quote to them the authority of Homer,
who says, that
'Modesty is not good for a needy man.'
Let us then, regardless of what may be said of us, make the education of
the youths our own education.
|
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 One Basket by Edna Ferber: Up the front steps. Into the house. Not a sound. She stood
there a moment in the early-morning half-light. She peered into
the dining room. The table, with its breakfast debris, was as
she had left it. In the kitchen the coffeepot stood on the gas
stove. She was home. She was safe. She ran up the stairs, got
out of her clothes and into gingham morning things. She flung
open windows everywhere. Downstairs once more she plunged into
an orgy of cleaning. Dishes, table, stove, floor, rugs. She
washed, scoured, swabbed, polished. By eight o'clock she had
done the work that would ordinarily have taken until noon. The
house was shining, orderly, and redolent of soapsuds.
One Basket |
