| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: Williams--burglar, Harvard graduate, son of a clergyman.
Chapter 53
My Boyhood's Home
WE took passage in one of the fast boats of the St. Louis and St. Paul
Packet Company, and started up the river.
When I, as a boy, first saw the mouth of the Missouri River, it was twenty-two
or twenty-three miles above St. Louis, according to the estimate of pilots;
the wear and tear of the banks have moved it down eight miles since then;
and the pilots say that within five years the river will cut through and
move the mouth down five miles more, which will bring it within ten miles
of St. Louis.
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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 Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: contracts, to hold property, to make oath when required by the
magistrates, to marry a wife, to be given in marriage.
They condemn the Anabaptists who forbid these civil offices to
Christians.
They condemn also those who do not place evangelical
perfection in the fear of God and in faith, but in forsaking
civil offices, for the Gospel teaches an eternal righteousness
of the heart. Meanwhile, it does not destroy the State or the
family, but very much requires that they be preserved as
ordinances of God, and that charity be practiced in such
ordinances. Therefore, Christians are necessarily bound to
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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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: "Aye, aye," said Gascoyne, with a sigh; "so it is to be poor, and
not be able to have such things as one loveth and would fain
possess. Seventeen shillings is nigh as much by half again as all
my yearly wage."
Then a sudden thought came to Myles, and as it came his cheeks
glowed as hot as fire "Master Gascoyne," said he, with gruff
awkwardness, "thou hast been a very good, true friend to me since
I have come to this place, and hast befriended me in all ways
thou mightest do, and I, as well I know, but a poor rustic clod.
Now I have forty shillings by me which I may spend as I list, and
so I do beseech thee that thou wilt take yon dagger of me as a
Men of Iron |
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 A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: dance lightly over the soft grass, and the violets and wild flowers
look smilingly up from their green nests. To laugh one needs to be
happy; to be happy one needs to be content. And throughout the
Laughing Valley of Santa Claus contentment reigns supreme.
On one side is the mighty Forest of Burzee. At the other side stands
the huge mountain that contains the Caves of the Daemons. And between
them the Valley lies smiling and peaceful.
One would thing that our good old Santa Claus, who devotes his days to
making children happy, would have no enemies on all the earth; and, as
a matter of fact, for a long period of time he encountered nothing but
love wherever he might go.
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
