| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "It's a secret, but I'll tell you," replied the Tin Woodman, who was
Emperor of the Winkies. "I am having my people make Ozma a lovely
girdle set with beautiful tin nuggets. Each tin nugget will be
surrounded by a circle of emeralds, just to set it off to good advantage.
The clasp of the girdle will be pure tin! Won't that be fine?"
"I'm sure she'll like it," said Dorothy. "Do you know what I can
give her?"
"I haven't the slightest idea, Dorothy. It took me three months to
think of my own present for Ozma."
The girl walked thoughtfully around to the back of the palace, and
presently came upon the famous Scarecrow of Oz, who has having two of
The Magic of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: to witness his own doom, had torn to pieces and burnt three
days before.
He knelt down, said his prayers, and observed, not without a
feeling of sincere joy, that, laying his head on the block,
and keeping his eyes open, he would be able to his last
moment to see the grated window of the Buytenhof.
At length the fatal moment arrived, and Cornelius placed his
chin on the cold damp block. But at this moment his eyes
closed involuntarily, to receive more resolutely the
terrible avalanche which was about to fall on his head, and
to engulf his life.
The Black Tulip |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: any rate so far as the conscientious eye can judge. Taken as a
whole, therefore, the rope-latticed edifice consists of a series of
cross-bars intersecting the several radiating lines obliquely at
angles of equal value.
By this characteristic we recognize the 'logarithmic spiral.'
Geometricians give this name to the curve which intersects
obliquely, at angles of unvarying value, all the straight lines or
'radii vectores' radiating from a centre called the 'Pole.' The
Epeira's construction, therefore, is a series of chords joining the
intersections of a logarithmic spiral with a series of radii. It
would become merged in this spiral if the number of radii were
The Life of the Spider |
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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: entertainment of the crowd, there was a moment when the Count found
himself wavering between the sublime and its parody, the farcical
extremes of human life. Ignoring the chain of incredible events which
had brought them to this smoky den, he believed himself to be the
plaything of some strange hallucination, and thought of Gambara and
Giardini as two abstractions.
Meanwhile, after a last piece of buffoonery from the deaf conductor in
reply to Gambara, the company had broken up laughing loudly. Giardini
went off to make coffee, which he begged the select few to accept, and
his wife cleared the table. The Count, sitting near the stove between
Marianna and Gambara, was in the very position which the mad musician
Gambara |
