| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: cannot tell how long it was that he endured this discipline; but it
was long enough to leave a great black blot upon his memory, long
enough to send him, trembling for his reason, to the doors of a
certain doctor; whereupon with a simple draught he was restored to
the common lot of man.
The poor gentleman has since been troubled by nothing of the sort;
indeed, his nights were for some while like other men's, now blank,
now chequered with dreams, and these sometimes charming, sometimes
appalling, but except for an occasional vividness, of no
extraordinary kind. I will just note one of these occasions, ere I
pass on to what makes my dreamer truly interesting. It seemed to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: plate--more than once brought his rare smile. For years
afterward, the memory of one evening lingered with him. He was
resting in an old chair tipped back against the house, thinking
deeply, when the little girl, tired from her play, climbed into
his lap and, making a cozy nest for herself in the crook of his
arm, fell asleep. He had finished planning out the work upon
which he had been concentrating and had been about to take her
into the house when he suddenly became aware of the child's
loveliness. In the silvery moonlight all the fairy, flower-like
quality of her was enhanced. Martin studied her closely,
reverently. It was his first conscious worship of beauty. Leaning
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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 Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: time, Lucy saw Frank walking, dressed in a San Benito, in that
ghastly procession. Lucy was adjudged to receive publicly two
hundred stripes, and to be sent to "The Holy House" at Seville to
perpetual prison. Frank and Rose, with a renegade Jew, and a negro
who had been convicted of practising "Obi," were sentenced to death
as impenitent, and delivered over to the secular arm, with prayers
that there might be no shedding of blood. In compliance with which
request, the Jew and the negro were burnt at one stake, Frank and
Rose at another. She thought they did not feel it more than twenty
minutes. They were both very bold and steadfast, and held each
other's hand (that she would swear to) to the very last.
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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 Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Land of Oz."
"I must speak to Ozma about that," said the Wizard, with a slight
frown. "It wouldn't do at all, you know, for the Emerald City to
become a way-station on an airship line."
"No," said Dorothy, "I don't s'pose it would. But what can we do
to prevent it?"
"I'm working out a magic recipe to fuddle men's brains, so they'll
never make an airship that will go where they want it to go," the
Wizard confided to her. "That won't keep the things from flying,
now and then, but it'll keep them from flying to the Land of Oz."
Just then the Sawhorse drew the wagon out of the forest and a
The Emerald City of Oz |
