| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: night!"
"That is for you, mother," said the soldier, as he gave her several
coins, "and that is for the children," he went on, as he added another
crown. "Is M. Benassis' house still a long way off?" he asked, when he
had mounted his horse.
"Oh! no, sir, a bare league at most."
The commandant set out, fully persuaded that two leagues remained
ahead of him. Yet after all he soon caught a glimpse through the trees
of the little town's first cluster of houses, and then of all the
roofs that crowded about a conical steeple, whose slates were secured
to the angles of the wooden framework by sheets of tin that glittered
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "No, dear. Did you discover the three fishes?"
"Not yet. But there isn't anything better for me to
do, Ozma, so I guess I'll go back and watch again."
Chapter Thirteen
The Alarm Bell
Glinda, the Good, in her palace in the Quadling
Country, had many things to occupy her mind, for not
only did she look after the weaving and embroidery of
her bevy of maids, and assist all those who came to her
to implore her help -- beasts and birds as well as
people -- but she was a close student of the arts of
Glinda of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: Charles, would choose Egmont; but instead he appointed his half-sister
Margaret, Duchess of Parma. Under the new Regent the persecution of the
Protestants was rigorously pressed, and in 1565 Egmont, though a
Catholic, was sent to Madrid to plead for clemency. He was received by
the King with every appearance of cordiality, but shortly after his return
home the Duke of Alva was sent to the Netherlands with instructions to
put down with an iron hand all resistance to his master's will. How terribly
he carried out his orders has been told by Prescott and Motley. Egmont
was an early victim, but his martyrdom, with that of Count Horn, and later
the assassination of William of Orange, roused the Netherlands to a
resistance that ended only with the complete throwing off of the Spanish
Egmont |
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 Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: master Chabert, the history of some of the
heat-resisters featured on magicians'
programmes, particularly in our own day, and the
interest taken in this art by performers whose
chief distinction was won in other fields, as
notably Edwin Forrest and the elder Sothern.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE MASTER--CHABERT, 1792-1859.
Ivan Ivanitz Chabert, the only
Really Incombustible Phenomenon, as he
was billed abroad, or J. Xavier Chabert, A.M.,
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
