| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: foot of Graylock."
"But, father," said the child, more sensitive than the obtuse,
middle-aged clown, "he does not laugh like a man that is glad. So
the noise frightens me!"
"Don't be a fool, child!" cried his father, gruffly. "You will
never make a man, I do believe; there is too much of your mother
in you. I have known the rustling of a leaf startle you. Hark!
Here comes the merry fellow now. You shall see that there is no
harm in him."
Bartram and his little son, while they were talking thus, sat
watching the same lime-kiln that had been the scene of Ethan
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: speaking, defence of women and children, the care of cattle,
the meaning of sex and marriage, and even the mysteries of
such religious ideas and rudimentary science as the tribe
possesses. And by so doing one really enters into a new
life. Things of the spiritual world begin to dawn. Julius
Firmicus, in describing the mysteries of the resurrection of
Osiris,[3] says that when the worshipers had satiated themselves
with lamentations over the death of the god then
the priest would go round anointing them with oil and
whispering, "Be of good cheer, O Neophytes of the new-
arisen God, for to us too from our pains shall come
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
