| 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: Upon such things it depends, and of them boasts, as though unwilling to
receive anything from God as a gift, but desires itself to earn or
merit it superabundantly, just as though He must serve us and were our
debtor, and we His liege lords. What is this but reducing God to an
idol, yea, [a fig image or] an apple-god, and elevating and regarding
ourselves as God ? But this is slightly too subtle, and is not for
young pupils.
But let this be said to the simple, that they may well note and
remember the meaning of this commandment, namely, that we are to trust
in God alone, and look to Him and expect from Him naught but good, as
from one who gives us body, life, food, drink, nourishment, health,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: much with us. But it now nears an end, to-day already the
CURACOA has sailed; and on Saturday or Sunday Lady Jersey
will follow them in the mail steamer. I am sending you a
wire by her hands as far as Sydney, that is to say either you
or Cassell, about FALESA: I will not allow it to be called
UMA in book form, that is not the logical name of the story.
Nor can I have the marriage contract omitted; and the thing
is full of misprints abominable. In the picture, Uma is rot;
so is the old man and the negro; but Wiltshire is splendid,
and Case will do. It seems badly illuminated, but this may
be printing. How have I seen this first number? Not through
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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 Lesser Hippias by Plato: wise men, for you will see that when I am talking with a wise man, I am
very attentive to what he says; and I ask questions of him, in order that I
may learn, and be improved by him. And I could not help remarking while
you were speaking, that when you recited the verses in which Achilles, as
you argued, attacks Odysseus as a deceiver, that you must be strangely
mistaken, because Odysseus, the man of wiles, is never found to tell a lie;
but Achilles is found to be wily on your own showing. At any rate he
speaks falsely; for first he utters these words, which you just now
repeated,--
'He is hateful to me even as the gates of death who thinks one thing and
says another:'--
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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 The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: not the slightest haste."
Eudora nodded, and her long neck seemed to grow longer.
When she was stepping regally down the path, Amelia said in a
hasty whisper to Sophia: "Did you tell her?"
Sophia shook her head. "No, sister."
"I didn't know but you might have, while I was out of the room."
"I did not," said Sophia. She looked doubtfully at Amelia, then
at Anna, and doubt flashed back and forth between the three pairs
of blue eyes for a second. Then Sophia spoke with authority,
because she was the only one of them all who had entered the
estate of matrimony, and had consequently obvious cognizance of
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