| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: --would be decided by events. All his inherited and
cultivated instincts yearned for the brilliant and
complex civilizations of Europe, but the new world
had taken a firm hold upon his humaner and
appealed more insidiously to his despotic. More-
over, Europe, torn up by that human earthquake,
Napoleon Bonaparte, must lose the greater half of
its sweetness and savor. All that, however, could
be determined upon his return to St. Petersburg in
the autumn.
But meanwhile he must succeed with these Cali-
Rezanov |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from United States Declaration of Independence: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection
and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries
to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
United States Declaration of Independence |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: the street at such a time as this; we had as good go into the dead-cart
at once. Therefore I say, if we stay here we are sure to die, and if we
go away we can but die; I am resolved to be gone.
Thomas. You will go away. Whither will you go, and what can you
do? I would as willingly go away as you, if I knew whither. But we
have no acquaintance, no friends. Here we were born, and here we
must die.
John. Look you, Tom, the whole kingdom is my native country as
well as this town. You may as well say I must not go out of my house
if it is on fire as that I must not go out of the town I was born in when
it is infected with the plague. I was born in England, and have a right
A Journal of the Plague Year |
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 treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: knavery, although this oath is demanded, forced and taken
contrary to God and the law, and by it the doors are locked
against the Holy Spirit, Who should rule the councils. But this
would be the best, and also the only remedy remaining, if kings,
princes, nobility, cities and communities themselves began and
opened a way for reformation, so that the bishops and clergy, who
now are afraid, would have reason to follow. For here nothing
else shall and must be considered except God's first three
Commandments, against which neither Rome, nor heaven nor earth
can command or forbid anything. And the ban or threatening with
which they think they can prevent this, amounts to nothing; just
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