| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: who are piratically ravaging our coasts, and to all the murdering
miscreants who are acting in authority under HIM whom ye profess to serve.
Had ye the honest soul of BARCLAY ye would preach repentance to YOUR king;
Ye would tell the Royal Wretch his sins, and warn him of eternal ruin.
["Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity; thou knowest what it is
to be banished thy native country, to be over-ruled as well as to rule,
and set upon the throne; and being oppressed thou hast reason to know
how hateful the oppressor is both to God and man: If after all these warnings
and advertisements, thou dost not turn unto the Lord with all thy heart,
but forget him who remembered thee in thy distress, and give up thyself
to fallow lust and vanity, surely great will be thy condemnation.--
Common Sense |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: discoveries, and returned again to the Polish memoranda The words
"[Rus]sian officers" in "Jean's" note led me to notice that it had
been written towards the close of the last insurrection in Poland--
a circumstance which I immediately coupled with some things in the
note and on the leaf of the journal. "No tidings of Y" might
indicate that Count Kasincsky had been concerned in the rebellion,
and had fled, or been taken prisoner. Had he left a large amount
of funds in the hands of the supposed Otto von Herisau, which were
drawn from time to time by orders, the form of which had been
previously agreed upon? Then, when he had disappeared, might it
not have been the remaining funds which Jean urged Otto to divide
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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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: look better than ever in the suit, for his cheeks had now taken on a
still more interesting air, and his chin an added seductiveness, while
his white collar lent tone to his neck, the blue satin tie heightened
the effect of the collar, the fashionable dickey set off the tie, the
rich satin waistcoat emphasised the dickey, and the
smoked-grey-shot-with-flame-colour frockcoat, shining like silk,
splendidly rounded off the whole. When he turned to the right he
looked well: when he turned to the left he looked even better. In
short, it was a costume worthy of a Lord Chamberlain or the species of
dandy who shrinks from swearing in the Russian language, but amply
relieves his feelings in the language of France. Next, inclining his
Dead Souls |
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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: withdrawn. Therefore I repeat that the chief explanation of this point
is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart entirely
trusts.
Besides, consider what in our blindness, we have hitherto been
practicing and doing under the Papacy. If any one had toothache, he
fasted and honored St. Apollonia [lacerated his flesh by voluntary
fasting to the honor of St. Apollonia]; if he was afraid of fire, he
chose St. Lawrence as his helper in need; if he dreaded pestilence, he
made a vow to St. Sebastian or Rochio, and a countless number of such
abominations, where every one selected his own saint, worshiped him,
and called for help to him in distress. Here belong those also, as,
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