| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least
three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it.
She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation;
and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss
Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple
to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage.
But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune
in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.
Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found
herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris,
a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any
Mansfield Park |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: unsubstantial.
But if the strange appearance of his Majesty the Scarecrow seemed startling
to Jack, no less wonderful was the form of the Pumpkinhead to the Scarecrow.
The purple trousers and pink waistcoat and red shirt hung loosely over the
wooden joints Tip had manufactured, and the carved face on the pumpkin
grinned perpetually, as if its wearer considered life the jolliest thing
imaginable.
At first, indeed, His Majesty thought his queer visitor was laughing at him,
and was inclined to resent such a liberty; but it was not without reason
that the Scarecrow had attained the reputation of being the wisest personage
in the Land of Oz. He made a more careful examination of his visitor, and
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: society, most of the sentiments, the habits, and even the opinions,
by means of which they had effected the destruction of that state of
things; and that, without intending it, they had used its remains to
rebuild the edifice of modern society. This is his thesis, and this
he proves, it seems to me, incontestably by documentary evidence.
Not only does he find habits which we suppose--or supposed till
lately--to have died with the eighteenth century, still living and
working, at least in France, in the nineteenth, but the new opinions
which we look on usually as the special children of the nineteenth
century, he shows to have been born in the eighteenth. France, he
considers, is still at heart what the Ancien Regime made her.
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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 A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: "'Listen, Bela. You see it is impossible for him
to stop in here with you for ever, as if he was
sewn on to your petticoat. He is a young man
and fond of hunting. Off he'll go, but you will
find that he will come back; and, if you are
going to be unhappy, you will soon make him
tired of you.'
"'True, true!' she said. 'I will be
merry.'
"And with a burst of laughter, she seized her
tambourine, began to sing, dance, and gambol
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