| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: gives way beneath civilization, and which our indifference and
heedlessness trample under foot. The Encyclopedia, in the last century,
was a mine that was almost open to the sky. The shades, those sombre
hatchers of primitive Christianity, only awaited an opportunity to
bring about an explosion under the Caesars and to inundate the human
race with light. For in the sacred shadows there lies latent light.
Volcanoes are full of a shadow that is capable of flashing forth.
Every form begins by being night. The catacombs, in which the first
mass was said, were not alone the cellar of Rome, they were the vaults
of the world.
Beneath the social construction, that complicated marvel of a structure,
Les Miserables |
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: are able to support you we will do it willingly, and send you to
school. We fear, though, that we shall have much trouble in earning a
living for ourselves. No one wants to employ old people who are
broken down in health, as we are."
Dorothy smiled.
"Wouldn't it be funny," she said, "for me to do housework in Kansas,
when I'm a Princess in the Land of Oz?"
"A Princess!" they both exclaimed, astonished.
"Yes; Ozma made me a Princess some time ago, and she has often begged
me to come and live always in the Emerald City," said the child.
Her uncle and aunt looked at her in amazement. Then the man said:
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 Options by O. Henry: all about it, anyhow. In fact, he's quite a material witness because
he was present when you--when it happened. I thought you might want
to talk things over before--well, before any action is taken, as I
believe the lawyers say."
"Have you anything in the way of a proposition to make?" asked Black-
Tie.
Miss De Ormond looked reflectively at the neat toe of one of her dull
kid-pumps.
"I had a proposal made to me," she said. "If the proposal sticks it
cuts out the proposition. Let's have that settled first."
"Well, as far as--" began Blue-Tie.
Options |
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 Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: as he left them he picked up the spear which had transfixed
Snipes, and thus primitively armed, the son of the then Lord
Greystoke strode into the dense jungle.
Every few moments he called aloud the names of the wanderers.
The watchers in the cabin by the beach heard the sound of his
voice growing ever fainter and fainter, until at last it was
swallowed up by the myriad noises of the primeval wood.
When Professor Archimedes Q. Porter and his assistant,
Samuel T. Philander, after much insistence on the part of the
latter, had finally turned their steps toward camp, they were
as completely lost in the wild and tangled labyrinth of the
Tarzan of the Apes |
