| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: saplings, which he cut down and trimmed of all their twigs and leaves. From
these he would make the arms, and legs, and feet of his man. For the body he
stripped a sheet of thick
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bark from around a big tree, and with much labor fashioned it into a
cylinder of about the right size, pinning the edges together with wooden
pegs. Then, whistling happily as he worked, he carefully jointed the limbs
and fastened them to the body with pegs whittled into shape with his knife.
By the time this feat had been accomplished it began to grow dark, and Tip
remembered he must milk the cow and feed the pigs. So he picked up his
wooden man and carried it back to the house with him.
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.: South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain
of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to
transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful
symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work
together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail
together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will
be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to
sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of
liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the
pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: capital. They want a helpful France. They want bituminous coal
for metallurgical purposes. They want cheap shipping. The
French too want metallurgical coal. It is more important for
civilisation, for the general goodwill of the Allies and for
Great Britain that these needs should be supplied than that
individual British money-owners or ship-owners should remain
sluggishly rich by insisting upon high security or high freights.
The control of British coal-mining and shipping is in the
national interests--for international interests--rather than for
the creation of that particularly passive, obstructive, and
wasteful type of wealth, the wealth of the mere profiteer, is as
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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 The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: of the frying-pan into the fire, ran from the yard-arm to the
block, and escaped the open hostility of the man-of-war to lie at
the mercy of the doubtful faith of our Albanian merchant.
From many circumstances, it chanced we were safer than we could
have dared to hope. The town of Albany was at that time much
concerned in contraband trade across the desert with the Indians
and the French. This, as it was highly illegal, relaxed their
loyalty, and as it brought them in relation with the politest
people on the earth, divided even their sympathies. In short, they
were like all the smugglers in the world, spies and agents ready-
made for either party. Our Albanian, besides, was a very honest
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