| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: earnest man seems to think out for himself the deepest grounds of his
creed. Less originality, because, as I believe, one common Logos, Word,
Reason, reveals and unveils the same eternal truth to all who seek and
hunger for it.
Therefore we can, as the Christian philosophers of Alexandria did,
rejoice over every truth which their heathen adversaries beheld, and
attribute them, as Clement does, to the highest source, to the
inspiration of the one and universal Logos. With Clement, philosophy is
only hurtful when it is untrue to itself, and philosophy falsely so
called; true philosophy is an image of the truth, a divine gift bestowed
on the Greeks. The Bible, in his eyes, asserts that all forms of art
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: landing he jumped into a hack, hurrying the cabman.
Jennie was watching for him at the garden gate. She said her
mother was in the sitting-room, and Gran'pop was with her. As
they walked up the path she recounted rapidly the events of the
past two days.
Tom was on the lounge by the window, under the flowering plants,
when Babcock entered. She was apparently asleep. Across her
forehead, covering the temples, two narrow bandages bound up her
wound. At Babcock's step she opened her eyes, her bruised,
discolored face breaking into a smile. Then, noting his evident
anxiety, she threw the shawl from her shoulders and sat up.
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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 The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: happenings, but the Lancaster house was situated so far from the
road, behind its grove of trees, that nothing whatever could be
seen.
"I doubt if Eudora tells, if he does call--that is, not unless
something definite happens," said Anna.
"No," remarked Amelia, sadly. "Eudora is a dear, but she is very
silent with regard to her own affairs."
"She ought to be," said Sophia, with her married authority. She
was, to her sisters, as one who had passed within the shrine and
was dignifiedly silent with regard to its intimate mysteries.
"I suppose so," assented Anna, with a soft sigh. Amelia sighed
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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 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: and to think that mayhap he was the great outlaw in real sooth.
Said he in a slow, wondering voice, "Am I in very truth that fellow?--
Now I had thought--but nay, Quince, thou art mistook--yet--am I?--Nay, I must
indeed be Robin Hood! Yet, truly, I had never thought to pass from
an honest craftsman to such a great yeoman."
"Alas!" quoth Robin Hood, "look ye there, now! See how your ill-treatment
hath curdled the wits of this poor lad and turned them all sour!
I, myself, am Quince, the Cobbler of Derby Town."
"Is it so?" said Quince. "Then, indeed, I am somebody else, and can be none
other than Robin Hood. Take me, fellows; but let me tell you that ye ha'
laid hand upon the stoutest yeoman that ever trod the woodlands."
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
