| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: has a very wide scope. For when you mention and pray for daily bread,
you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy
daily bread and, on the other hand, against everything which interferes
with it. Therefore you must open wide and extend your thoughts not only
to the oven or the flour-bin but to the distant field and the entire
land, which bears and brings to us daily bread and every sort of
sustenance. For if God did not cause it to grow, and bless and preserve
it in the field, we could never take bread from the oven or have any to
set upon the table.
To comprise it briefly, this petition includes everything that belongs
to our entire life in the world, because on that account alone do we
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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 Crowd by Gustave le Bon: parliamentary assemblies are the best form of government mankind
has discovered as yet, and more especially the best means it has
found to escape the yoke of personal tyrannies. They constitute
assuredly the ideal government at any rate for philosophers,
thinkers, writers, artists, and learned men--in a word, for all
those who form the cream of a civilisation.
Moreover, in reality they only present two serious dangers, one
being inevitable financial waste, and the other the progressive
restriction of the liberty of the individual.
The first of these dangers is the necessary consequence of the
exigencies and want of foresight of electoral crowds. Should a
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