| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: day of the first full moon in the evening, and which they must not vary
a day. As if He would say by these words: I institute a Passover or
Supper for you which you shall enjoy not only once a year, just upon
this evening, but often, when and where you will, according to every
one's opportunity and necessity, bound to no place or appointed time;
although the Pope afterwards perverted it, and again made a Jewish
feast of it.
Thus, you perceive, it is not left free in the sense that we may
despise it. For that I call despising it if one allow so long a time to
elapse and with nothing to hinder him yet never feels a desire for it.
If you wish such liberty, you may just as well have the liberty to be
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Such things are easy in words. You listen,
And frown, I suppose, that I never mention
That beautiful word, FORGIVE! -- I forgave her
First of all; and I praised kind Heaven
That I was a brave, clean man to do it;
And then I tried to forget. Forgiveness!
What does it mean when the one forgiven
Shivers and weeps and clings and kisses
The credulous fool that holds her, and tells him
A thousand things of a good man's mercy,
And then slips off with a laugh and plunges
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: none in the land have ever known him to lie, but he was not sent
to do so, for I brought him here. For my part I do not believe
that he lies. I believe that these English are as many as the
pebbles in a river bed, and that to them Natal, yes, and all the
Cape is but as a single, outlying cattle kraal, one cattle kraal
out of a hundred. Did not Sompseu once tell us that they were
countless, on that day when he came many years ago after the
battle of the Tugela to name me to succeed my father Panda, the
day when my faction, the Usutu, roared round him for hours like a
river in flood, and he sat still like a rock in the centre of a
river? Also I am minded of the words that Chaka said when
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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 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: to get back with. Please tell me the way."
"Look you here, missis," said Jerry, "I've got a wife and dear children
at home, and I know a father's feelings; now get you into that cab,
and I'll take you there for nothing. I'd be ashamed of myself
to let a woman and a sick child run a risk like that."
"Heaven bless you!" said the woman, and burst into tears.
"There, there, cheer up, my dear, I'll soon take you there;
come, let me put you inside."
As Jerry went to open the door two men, with colors in their hats
and buttonholes, ran up calling out, "Cab!"
"Engaged," cried Jerry; but one of the men, pushing past the woman,
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