| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: circle, on a spacious platform six feet high, I've
grouped a battery of thirteen gatling guns, and pro-
vided plenty of ammunition."
"That's it. They command every approach, and
when the Church's knights arrive, there's going to be
music. The brow of the precipice over the cave --"
"I've got a wire fence there, and a gatling. They
won't drop any rocks down on us."
"Well, and the glass-cylinder dynamite torpedoes?"
"That's attended to. It's the prettiest garden that
was ever planted. It's a belt forty feet wide, and goes
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: the Scriptures? I answer, Before all things bear in mind what I
have said: that faith alone without works justifies, sets free,
and saves, as I shall show more clearly below.
Meanwhile it is to be noted that the whole Scripture of God is
divided into two parts: precepts and promises. The precepts
certainly teach us what is good, but what they teach is not
forthwith done. For they show us what we ought to do, but do not
give us the power to do it. They were ordained, however, for the
purpose of showing man to himself, that through them he may learn
his own impotence for good and may despair of his own strength.
For this reason they are called the Old Testament, and are so.
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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 Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: Wales, who will occupy it when he is seven or nine years old; on the
left Prince Albert sits.
The seat assigned me was in the front row, and quite open, like a
sofa, so that I could talk with any gentleman whom I knew. Madam
Van de Weyer was on one side of me and the Princess Callimachi on
the other, and Miss Murray just behind me. She insisted on
introducing to me all her noble relatives. Her cousin, the young
Duke of Athol; the Duke of Buccleuch; her nephew the Marquis of
Camden; her brother the Bishop of Rochester. There were many whom I
had seen before, so that the hour passed very agreeably. Very soon
came in the Duke of Cambridge, at which everybody rose, he being a
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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 Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: actuary, it will probably be destroyed by fire I will have
paid you considerably less than the face of the policy.
INSURANCE AGENT: O dear, no -- we could not afford to do that.
We must fix the premium so that you will have paid more.
HOUSE OWNER: How, then, can _I_ afford _that_?
INSURANCE AGENT: Why, your house may burn down at any time.
There was Smith's house, for example, which --
HOUSE OWNER: Spare me -- there were Brown's house, on the
contrary, and Jones's house, and Robinson's house, which --
INSURANCE AGENT: Spare _me_!
HOUSE OWNER: Let us understand each other. You want me to pay
The Devil's Dictionary |
