| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Selina slept! The wire had been clipped where it came into the
house, just under a window, and the scissors still lay on the
sill.
It was mysterious enough, but no one was interested in the
mystery just then. We wanted food, and wanted it at once. Mr.
Harbison fixed the wire, and the first thing we did, of course,
was to order something to eat. Aunt Selina went to bed just after
luncheon with indigestion, to the relief of every one in the
house. She had been most unpleasant all morning.
When she found herself ill, however, she insisted on having
Bella, and that made trouble at once. We found Bella with her
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: opposite to the town: I crossed in a steamboat, two of which
are constantly plying backwards and forwards. The machinery
of one of these vessels was entirely manufactured in
this colony, which, from its very foundation, then numbered
only three and thirty years! Another day I ascended Mount
Wellington; I took with me a guide, for I failed in a first
attempt, from the thickness of the wood. Our guide, however,
was a stupid fellow, and conducted us to the southern
and damp side of the mountain, where the vegetation was
very luxuriant; and where the labour of the ascent, from the
number of rotten trunks, was almost as great as on a mountain
The Voyage of the Beagle |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: we equipped our sinister haunt of science with materials either
purchased in Boston or quietly borrowed from the college -- materials
carefully made unrecognisable save to expert eyes -- and provided
spades and picks for the many burials we should have to make in
the cellar. At the college we used an incinerator, but the apparatus
was too costly for our unauthorised laboratory. Bodies were always
a nuisance -- even the small guinea-pig bodies from the slight
clandestine experiments in West’s room at the boarding-house.
We followed the local death-notices like ghouls, for our specimens
demanded particular qualities. What we wanted were corpses interred
soon after death and without artificial preservation; preferably
Herbert West: Reanimator |
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 Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: beautiful," she continued, "that I am sure I could love you dearly.
Won't you let me carry you back to Kansas, and stand you on
Aunt Em's mantel? I could carry you in my basket."
"That would make me very unhappy," answered the china Princess.
"You see, here in our country we live contentedly, and can talk and
move around as we please. But whenever any of us are taken away our
joints at once stiffen, and we can only stand straight and look pretty.
Of course that is all that is expected of us when we are on mantels and
cabinets and drawing-room tables, but our lives are much pleasanter
here in our own country."
"I would not make you unhappy for all the world!" exclaimed Dorothy.
The Wizard of Oz |
