| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: faculties are cast away."
But how, then, in the ages when the understanding had preserved the
religious and spiritualist impressions, which prevailed from the time
of Christ till that of Descartes, between faith and doubt, how could
men help accounting for the mysteries of our nature otherwise than by
divine interposition? Of whom but of God Himself could sages demand an
account of an invisible creature so actively and so reactively
sensitive, gifted with faculties so extensive, so improvable by use,
and so powerful under certain occult influences, that they could
sometimes see it annihilate, by some phenomenon of sight or movement,
space in its two manifestations--Time and Distance--of which the
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: ere his death, John Wesley wrote:--
"In London alone I found 652 members of our Society who were
exceeding clear in their experience, and whose testimony I could
see no reason to doubt. And every one of these (without a single
exception) has declared that his deliverance from sin was
instantaneous; that the change was wrought in a moment. Had half
of these, or one third, or one in twenty, declared it was
GRADUALLY wrought in THEM, I should have believed this, with
regard to THEM, and thought that SOME were gradually sanctified
and some instantaneously. But as I have not found, in so long a
space of time, a single person speaking thus, I cannot but
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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 A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: the sceptre.' And as he spake he turned his face from them towards
the street that led to the gate of the city, and lo! amongst the
crowd that pressed round the soldiers, he saw the beggar-woman who
was his mother, and at her side stood the leper, who had sat by the
road.
And a cry of joy broke from his lips, and he ran over, and kneeling
down he kissed the wounds on his mother's feet, and wet them with
his tears. He bowed his head in the dust, and sobbing, as one
whose heart might break, he said to her: 'Mother, I denied thee in
the hour of my pride. Accept me in the hour of my humility.
Mother, I gave thee hatred. Do thou give me love. Mother, I
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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 Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: bones, was brown and seared with furrows; he had a big, fat nose and
little eyes set close together.
On no account was Ugu the Shoemaker a pleasant person to gaze at. As
his image appeared before the, all were silent and intent until
Corporal Waddle, the Brown Bear, became nervous and pulled the trigger
of his gun. Instantly, the cork flew out of the tin barrel with a
loud "pop!" that made them all jump. And at this sound, the image of
the magician vanished. "So THAT'S the thief, is it?" said Cayke in an
angry voice. "I should think he'd be ashamed of himself for stealing
a poor woman's diamond dishpan! But I mean to face him in his wicker
castle and force him to return my property."
The Lost Princess of Oz |
