| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: people.
Kwairyo laughed long and loudly at these questions; and then he said: --
"Sirs, I did not fasten the head to my sleeve: it fastened itself there --
much against my will. And I have not committed any crime. For this is not
the head of a man; it is the head of a goblin; -- and, if I caused the
death of the goblin, I did not do so by any shedding of blood, but simply
by taking the precautions necessary to assure my own safety."... And he
proceeded to relate the whole of the adventure, -- bursting into another
hearty laugh as he told of his encounter with the five heads.
But the magistrates did not laugh. They judged him to be a hardened
criminal, and his story an insult to their intelligence. Therefore, without
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: Wherefore, when any man is made good or bad, this does not arise
from his works, but from his faith or unbelief, as the wise man
says, "The beginning of sin is to fall away from God"; that is,
not to believe. Paul says, "He that cometh to God must believe"
(Heb. xi. 6); and Christ says the same thing: "Either make the
tree good and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and
his fruit corrupt" (Matt. xii. 33),--as much as to say, He who
wishes to have good fruit will begin with the tree, and plant a
good one; even so he who wishes to do good works must begin, not
by working, but by believing, since it is this which makes the
person good. For nothing makes the person good but faith, nor bad
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: holy water brush, she told him of her great love, which was boundless
since it stretched through the infinite spaces of unsatisfied desire.
All the fire with which the ladies endow their substantial amours,
when the night has no other lights than their eyes, she transferred
into the mystic motions of her head, the exultations of her soul, and
the ecstasies of her heart. Then, naturally, and with the delicious
joy of two angels united by thought alone, they intoned together those
sweet litanies repeated by the lovers of the period in honour of
love--anthems which the abbot of Theleme has paragraphically saved
from oblivion by engraving them on the walls of his Abbey, situated,
according to master Alcofribas, in our land of Chinon, where I have
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
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 Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: than England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany and
Switzerland put together, with a coast line 3,500 miles long, and
a land frontier of over 7,000 miles.
President Buchanan's timidity and want of spirit had alone made
this great rebellion possible, for although it had been
"gathering head for thirty years" it was only within the last few
months that it had come to acts of open treason and rebellion.
President Buchanan had opportunity and ample power to crush it
when the conspirators first began to show their hands. Instead he
wavered, and delayed, while they grew bold under his lack of
decision, imagining that they would have a bloodless victory, and
|
