| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: hoped that, from fear of your name, I should yield and keep
silence; for I do not think he presumed on his talents and
learning. Now, when he sees that I am very confident and speak
aloud, he repents too late of his rashness, and sees--if indeed
he does see it--that there is One in heaven who resists the
proud, and humbles the presumptuous.
Since then we were bringing about by this disputation nothing but
the greater confusion of the cause of Rome, Charles Miltitz for
the third time addressed the Fathers of the Order, assembled in
chapter, and sought their advice for the settlement of the case,
as being now in a most troubled and perilous state. Since, by the
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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 Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: be too much for her to bear. This was the letter:
G.- September 21st.
My beloved:
When you put this letter in the hands of the Judge, I will have
found in death the peace that I could never find on earth. There
was no chance of happiness for me since I have realised that I love
you, that you love me, and that I must give you up if I am to remain
what I have always been - in spite of everything - a man of honour.
Albert Graumann would keep his word, this I know. Wherever you
might follow me as my wife, there his will would have been before
us, blasting my reputation, blackening the flame which you were 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 Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: One solid thing unconquered stands,
The ghost that humbles death.
All else is breath,
All else is breath!
Man rose from out the stinging slime,
Half brute, and sought a soul,
And up the starrier ways of time,
Half god, unto his goal,
He still must climb,
He still must climb!
What though worlds stagger, and the suns
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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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: Narr' Havas had drained his forests of these animals, taking young and
old, male and female, to keep up the war, and the military force of
his kingdom could not repair the loss. The people who had seen them
perishing at a distance were grieved at it; men lamented in the
streets, calling them by their names like deceased friends: "Ah! the
Invincible! the Victory! the Thunderer! the Swallow!" On the first
day, too, there was no talk except of the dead citizens. But on the
morrow the tents of the Mercenaries were seen on the mountain of the
Hot Springs. Then so deep was the despair that many people, especially
women, flung themselves headlong from the top of the Acropolis.
Hamilcar's designs were not known. He lived alone in his tent with
Salammbo |
