| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: absurdum, always bringing him back to the world of fact and
commonplace by force of sheer stolidity.
By the time Cervantes had got his volume of novels off his hands,
and summoned up resolution enough to set about the Second Part in
earnest, the case was very much altered. Don Quixote and Sancho
Panza had not merely found favour, but had already become, what they
have never since ceased to be, veritable entities to the popular
imagination. There was no occasion for him now to interpolate
extraneous matter; nay, his readers told him plainly that what they
wanted of him was more Don Quixote and more Sancho Panza, and not
novels, tales, or digressions. To himself, too, his creations had
Don Quixote |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: example in public, in the street too. De Wardes, you are
wrong."
"Wrong; in what way, may I ask?"
"You are wrong, monsieur, because you are always speaking
ill of someone or something," replied Raoul with undisturbed
composure.
"Be indulgent, Raoul," said De Guiche, in an undertone.
"Pray do not think of fighting, gentlemen!" said Manicamp,
"before you have rested yourselves; for in that case you
will not be able to do much."
"Come," said De Guiche, "forward, gentlemen!" and breaking
Ten Years Later |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: friends--knew what had become of her. It was Dorothy who first
discovered it. Dorothy was a little Kansas girl who had come to the
Land of Oz to live and had been given a delightful suite of rooms in
Ozma's royal palace just because Ozma loved Dorothy and wanted her to
live as near her as possible so the two girls might be much together.
Dorothy was not the only girl from the outside world who had been
welcomed to Oz and lived in the royal palace. There was another named
Betsy Bobbin, whose adventures had led her to seek refuge with Ozma,
and still another named Trot, who had been invited, together with her
faithful companion Cap'n Bill, to make her home in this wonderful
fairyland. The three girls all had rooms in the palace and were great
The Lost Princess of Oz |
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 Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: sake. Help me in the task of reconciling Hector to the world and
making him redeem the past."
"He!" cried the Marshal. "If he lives, he is not at the end of his
crimes. A man who has misprized an Adeline, who has smothered in his
own soul the feelings of a true Republican which I tried to instill
into him, the love of his country, of his family, and of the poor--
that man is a monster, a swine!--Take him away if you still care for
him, for a voice within me cries to me to load my pistols and blow his
brains out. By killing him I should save you all, and I should save
him too from himself."
The old man started to his feet with such a terrifying gesture that
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