| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: Naturally they turned to their kindred earth, and put their forelegs to the
ground, and their heads were crushed into strange oblong forms. Some of
them have four feet, and some of them more than four,--the latter, who are
the more senseless, drawing closer to their native element; the most
senseless of all have no limbs and trail their whole body on the ground.
The fourth kind are the inhabitants of the waters; these are made out of
the most senseless and ignorant and impure of men, whom God placed in the
uttermost parts of the world in return for their utter ignorance, and
caused them to respire water instead of the pure element of air. Such are
the laws by which animals pass into one another.
And so the world received animals, mortal and immortal, and was fulfilled
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: "It's that prescription," he panted, as he did so. "Your great-gran--"
He took hold of a framed engraving rather carelessly as he spoke
and it gave way, and he flew back to the ceiling again, while
the picture smashed onto the sofa. Bump he went against the ceiling,
and I knew then why he was all over white on the more salient curves
and angles of his person. He tried again more carefully, coming
down by way of the mantel.
It was really a most extraordinary spectacle, that great, fat,
apoplectic-looking man upside down and trying to get from the ceiling
to the floor. "That prescription," he said. "Too successful."
"How?"
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: scraping is too much for you: you're getting tired. Let me take
you in now, that you may rest till dinner."
Miss Anne rose assentingly, and the good brother took her away,
while Joshua's preliminary scrapings burst into the "White
Cockade," from which he intended to pass to a variety of tunes, by
a series of transitions which his good ear really taught him to
execute with some skill. It would have been an exasperating fact
to him, if he had known it, that the general attention was too
thoroughly absorbed by Ben's dancing for any one to give much heed
to the music.
Have you ever seen a real English rustic perform a solo dance?
Adam Bede |
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 Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: But the Frogman did not know that fact and became alarmed at the
little girl's seeming danger. So he gave a sudden leap and leaped
full upon the back of the great dove. Then began a desperate
struggle. The dove was as strong as Ugu had been, and in size it was
considerably bigger than the Frogman. But the Frogman had eaten the
zosozo, and it had made him fully as strong as Ugu the Dove. At the
first leap he bore the dove to the floor, but the giant bird got free
and began to bite and claw the Frogman, beating him down with its
great wings whenever he attempted to rise. The thick, tough skin of
the big frog was not easily damaged, but Dorothy feared for her
champion, and by again using the transformation power of the Magic
The Lost Princess of Oz |
