| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: If you would have the lion's share of life
You must wear the fox's skin. Oh, it will fit you;
It is a coat which fitteth every man.
GUIDO
Your Grace, I shall remember.
DUKE
That is well, boy, well.
I would not have about me shallow fools,
Who with mean scruples weigh the gold of life,
And faltering, paltering, end by failure; failure,
The only crime which I have not committed:
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without
great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
EZE 17:10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not
utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the
furrows where it grew.
EZE 17:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
EZE 17:12 Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these
things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to
Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and
led them with him to Babylon;
EZE 17:13 And hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant with
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: dear young Monsieur, has not so many wrinkles as mine."
She compressed her lips with an angry glance at me as if I could
help her wrinkles, then she sighed.
"God sends wrinkles, but what is our face?" she digressed in a tone
of great humility. "We shall have glorious faces in Paradise. But
meantime God has permitted me to preserve a smooth heart."
"Are you going to keep on like this much longer?" I fairly shouted
at her. "What are you talking about?"
"I am talking about the sweet old lady who came in a carriage. Not
a fiacre. I can tell a fiacre. In a little carriage shut in with
glass all in front. I suppose she is very rich. The carriage was
The Arrow of Gold |
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 Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: stared at it with wide open eyes, for surely no
such curious creature had ever existed before--
even in the Land of Oz.
Chapter Four
The Glass Cat
The cat was made of glass, so clear and
transparent that you could see through it as
easily as through a window. In the top of its
head, however, Was a mass of delicate pink balls
which looked like jewels, and it had a heart made
of a blood-red ruby. The eyes were two large
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
