| 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: He pronounces sentence and says: If you are pure and godly, you have no
need of Me, and I, in turn, none of thee. Therefore those alone are
called unworthy who neither feel their infirmities nor wish to be
considered sinners.
But if you say: What, then, shall I do if I cannot feel such distress
or experience hunger and thirst for the Sacrament? Answer: For those
who are so minded that they do not realize their condition I know no
better counsel than that they put their hand into their bosom to
ascertain whether they also have flesh and blood. And if you find that
to be the case, then go, for your good, to St. Paul's Epistle to the
Galatians, and hear what sort of a fruit your flesh is: Now the works
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: small pads and bound them tightly over both apertures of the wound.
"How is he?" asked Jim, when the amateur surgeon returned to the other room,
and proceeded to wash the blood from his hands.
Zeisberger shook his head gloomily.
"How is George?" whispered Edwards, who had heard Jim's question.
"Shot through the right lung. Human skill can not aid him! Only God can save."
"Didn't I hear a third shot?" whispered Dave, gazing round with sad,
questioning eyes. "Heckewelder?"
"Is safe. He has gone to see Williamson. You did hear a third shot. Half King
fell dead with a bullet over his left eye. He had just folded his arms in a
grand pose after his death decree to the Christians."
The Spirit of the Border |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: of India, Malays, Micronesians, Abyssinians, Arabs, Negroes, Indians of
North America, and apparently to the Australians--many of these natives
having had scarcely any intercourse with Europeans--are sufficient
to show that shrugging the shoulders, accompanied in some cases
by the other proper movements, is a gesture natural to mankind.
This gesture implies an unintentional or unavoidable action
on our own part, or one that we cannot perform; or an action
performed by another person which we cannot prevent.
It accompanies such speeches as, "It was not my fault;"
"It is impossible for me to grant this favour;" "He must follow his
own course, I cannot stop him." Shrugging the shoulders likewise
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
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 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: "No, you only say that; no doubt you know-all about it as well as
I do. I'm not a professor of sociology, of course, but it
interested me, and really, if it interests you, you ought to
study it."
"But what conclusion have they come to?"
"Excuse me ..."
The two neighbors had risen, and Sviazhsky, once more checking
Levin in his inconvenient habit of peeping into what was beyond
the outer chambers of his mind, went to see his guests out.
Chapter 28
Levin was insufferably bored that evening with the ladies; he was
Anna Karenina |
