| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: than for those that would most naturally appeal to
an Englishman in the same subject position. The
belief of the European in his own Kultur tends to be
fanatical and ruthless, and for this reason, as much as
for any other, the independence of extra-European
civilization is of real importance to the world, for it is
not by a dead uniformity that the world as a whole is
most enriched.
I have set forth strongly all the major difficulties
in the way of the preservation of the world's peace,
not because I believe these difficulties to be insuperable,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: race, and I may say that I expect to live a long time yet. Sit down,
you Phanfasms--if you can find a seat in this wild haunt--and listen
to what I have to say."
With all his knowledge and bravery General Guph did not know that the
steady glare from the bear eyes was reading his inmost thoughts as
surely as if they had been put into words. He did not know that these
despised rock heaps of the Phanfasms were merely deceptions to his own
eyes, nor could he guess that he was standing in the midst of one of
the most splendid and luxurious cities ever built by magic power. All
that he saw was a barren waste of rock heaps, a hairy man with an
owl's head and another with a bear's head. The sorcery of the
The Emerald City of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: years and they have brought us but little luck. We do not blame
you, for the gods of Anahuac have deserted us as we have deserted
them, and the gods alone stand between men and their evil destiny.
Whatever misfortunes we may have borne, you have shared in them,
and so it is now at the end. Nor will we go back upon our words in
this the last hour of the people of the Otomie. We have chosen; we
have lived free with you, and still free, we will die with you.
For like you we hold that it is better for us and ours to perish as
free men than to drag out our days beneath the yoke of the Teule.'
'It is well,' said Otomie; 'now nothing remains for us except to
seek a death so glorious that it shall be sung of in after days.
Montezuma's Daughter |
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 Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: the giant cottonwoods leaned their heads, jealously guarding the delicate
flowers from the sun. Beech trees, growing close in clanny groups, spread
their straight limbs gracefully; the white birches gleamed like silver
wherever a stray sunbeam stole through the foliage, and the oaks, monarchs of
the forest, rose over all, dark, rugged, and kingly.
Joe soon understood why the party traveled through such open forest. The
chief, seeming hardly to deviate from his direct course, kept clear of broken
ground, matted thickets and tangled windfalls. Joe got a glimpse of dark
ravines and heard the music of tumbling waters; he saw gray cliffs grown over
with vines, and full of holes and crevices; steep ridges, covered with dense
patches of briar and hazel, rising in the way. Yet the Shawnee always found an
The Spirit of the Border |
