| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: commanded, and is unnecessary and useless; for the holy
Christian [or catholic] Church can exist very well without
such a head, and it would certainly have remained better
[purer, and its career would have been more prosperous] if
such a head had not been raised up by the devil. And the
Papacy is also of no use in the Church, because it exercises
no Christian office; and therefore it is necessary for the
Church to continue and to exist without the Pope.
And supposing that the Pope would yield this point, so as not
to be supreme by divine right or from Gods command, but that
we must have [there must be elected] a [certain] head, to whom
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: Abraham's bunk was attached, remained as if by a mir-
acle. We groped in the ruins and came upon this, and
there he was, sitting in his bunk, surrounded by foam and
wreckage, jabbering cheerfully to himself. He was out
of his mind; completely and for ever mad, with this
sudden shock coming upon the fag-end of his endurance.
We snatched him up, lugged him aft, and pitched him
head-first down the cabin companion. You understand
there was no time to carry him down with infinite pre-
cautions and wait to see how he got on. Those below
would pick him up at the bottom of the stairs all right.
Youth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: the centre were twelve pedestals, each supporting a great glass ball,
and these hollow globes were indistinctly filled with reddish lights,
like enormous and still palpitating eyeballs. The soldiers lighted
themselves with torches as they stumbled on the slope of the deeply
laboured soil.
But they perceived a little lake divided into several basins by walls
of blue stones. So limpid was the wave that the flames of the torches
quivered in it at the very bottom, on a bed of white pebbles and
golden dust. It began to bubble, luminous spangles glided past, and
great fish with gems about their mouths, appeared near the surface.
With much laughter the soldiers slipped their fingers into the gills
Salammbo |
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 Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: was, the figure of a little woman passed between the bed and the
fire. The back of this form was turned to me, and I could
observe, from the shoulders and neck, it was that of an old
woman, whose dress was an old-fashioned gown, which I think
ladies call a sacque--that is, a sort of robe completely loose in
the body, but gathered into broad plaits upon the neck and
shoulders, which fall down to the ground, and terminate in a
species of train.
"I thought the intrusion singular enough, but never harboured for
a moment the idea that what I saw was anything more than the
mortal form of some old woman about the establishment, who had a
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