| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: for aught I know, turn the boiled pudding into a raw one again,--
for he is a great conjurer, as Madam How's grandson is bound to
be: but yet he would never find out how the pudding was made,
unless some one told him the great secret which the sailors in the
old story forgot--that the cook boiled it in a cloth.
This is Analysis's weak point--don't let it be yours--that in all
his calculations he is apt to forget the cloth, and indeed the
cook likewise. No doubt he can analyse the matter of things: but
he will keep forgetting that he cannot analyse their form.
Do I mean their shape?
No, my child; no. I mean something which makes the shape of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Glinda did not know that since Coo-ee-oh had forgotten
her magic none of the Skeezers knew how to raise the
island to the surface again. So Glinda was not worried
about Ozma and Dorothy until one morning, while she sat
with her maids, there came a sudden clang of the
great alarm bell. This was so unusual that every maid
gave a start and even the Sorceress for a moment could
not think what the alarm meant.
Then she remembered the ring she had given Dorothy
when she left the palace to start on her venture. In
giving the ring Glinda had warned the little girl not
Glinda of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: care. The mother was constantly occupied with that child; to him her
prettiest caresses; to him the toys, but to him, especially, the
penetrating mother-looks. Juana had watched him from his cradle; she
had studied his cries, his motions; she endeavored to discern his
nature that she might educate him wisely. It seemed at times as if she
had but that one child. Diard, seeing that the eldest, Juan, was in a
way neglected, took him under his own protection; and without
inquiring even of himself whether the boy was the fruit of that
ephemeral love to which he owed his wife, he made him his Benjamin.
Of all the sentiments transmitted to her through the blood of her
grandmothers which consumed her, Madame Diard accepted one alone,--
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: devotion to the throne was hereditary, as was also attachment to the
faith of our fathers, Monsieur de la Billardiere--'"
Bixiou. "Better say Monsieur le Baron de la Billardiere."
Du Bruel. "But he wasn't baron in 1793."
Bixiou. "No matter. Don't you remember that under the Empire Fouche
was telling an anecdote about the Convention, in which he had to quote
Robespierre, and he said, 'Robespierre called out to me, "Duc
d'Otrante, go to the Hotel de Ville."' There's a precedent for you!"
Du Bruel. "Let me just write that down; I can use it in a vaudeville.
--But to go back to what we were saying. I don't want to put 'Monsieur
le baron,' because I am reserving his honors till the last, when they
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