| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: righteousness, my life, my everlasting salvation. For this reason was He
made the law of the Law, the sin of sin, the death of death, that He might
redeem me from the curse of the Law. He permitted the Law to accuse
Him, sin to condemn Him, and death to take Him, to abolish the Law, to
condemn sin, and to destroy death for me.
This peculiar form of speech sounds much sweeter than if Paul had said:
"I through liberty am dead to the law." By putting it in this way, "I
through the law am dead to the law," he opposes one law with another
law, and has them fight it out.
In this masterly fashion Paul draws our attention away from the Law, sin,
death, and every evil, and centers it upon Christ.
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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 Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: he had the French, when he had the Orsini and Vitelli, and when he
relied on his own soldiers, on whose fidelity he could always count
and found it ever increasing; he was never esteemed more highly than
when every one saw that he was complete master of his own forces.
I was not intending to go beyond Italian and recent examples, but I am
unwilling to leave out Hiero, the Syracusan, he being one of those I
have named above. This man, as I have said, made head of the army by
the Syracusans, soon found out that a mercenary soldiery, constituted
like our Italian condottieri, was of no use; and it appearing to him
that he could neither keep them not let them go, he had them all cut
to pieces, and afterwards made war with his own forces and not with
The Prince |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: shows that he believes it.] And I am a very wicked woman.
BILLY. No, you're not, Loretta. You just didn't know.
LORETTA. [With a gleam of hope.] But you kissed me first.
BILLY. It doesn't matter. You let me kiss you.
LORETTA. [Hope dying down.] But not at first.
BILLY. But you did afterward and that's what counts. You let me
you in the grape-arbour. You let me -
LORETTA. [With anguish] Don't! Don't!
BILLY. [Relentlessly.]--kiss you when you were playing the piano.
You let me kiss you that day of the picnic. And I can't remember
all the times you let me kiss you good night.
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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 King Lear by William Shakespeare: This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,
And bids what will take all.
Kent. But who is with him?
Gent. None but the fool, who labours to outjest
His heart-struck injuries.
Kent. Sir, I do know you,
And dare upon the warrant of my note
Commend a dear thing to you. There is division
(Although as yet the face of it be cover'd
King Lear |
