| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Nor fears death's water mounting round his knees.
To him remembering not one day is sad,
Not one but that its memory makes him glad.
So good men lengthen life; and to recall
The past is to have twice enjoyed it all.
AD MAGISTRUM LUDI
(UNFINISHED DRAFT.)
NOW in the sky
And on the hearth of
Now in a drawer the direful cane,
That sceptre of the . . . reign,
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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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: Redemption. Therefore it is in no way to be tolerated.
Fifthly. The relics, in which there are found so many
falsehoods and tomfooleries concerning the bones of dogs and
horses, that even the devil has laughed at such rascalities,
ought long ago to have been condemned, even though there were
some good in them; and so much the more because they are
without the Word of God; being neither commanded nor
counseled, they are an entirely unnecessary and useless thing.
But the worst is that [they have imagined that] these relics
had to work indulgence and the forgiveness of sins [and have
revered them] as a good work and service of God, like the
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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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: wretchedness--to them, while they were making idols of wood and stone;
eating dead carcases; and burying their daughters alive; careless of
chastity, of justice, of property; sunk in unnatural crimes, dead in
trespasses and sins; hateful and hating one another--a man, one of their
own people had come, saying: "I have a message from the one righteous
God. His curse is on all this, for it is unlike Himself. He will have
you righteous men, after the pattern of your forefather Abraham. Be
that, and arise, body, soul, and spirit, out of your savagery and
brutishness. Then you shall be able to trample under font the
profligate idolaters, to sweep the Greek tyrants from the land which
they have been oppressing for centuries, and to recover the East for its
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: tell us of that kind more than the product of vapours, sick minds,
and wandering fancies: but this I know, that my imagination worked
up to such a height, and brought me into such excess of vapours, or
what else I may call it, that I actually supposed myself often upon
the spot, at my old castle, behind the trees; saw my old Spaniard,
Friday's father, and the reprobate sailors I left upon the island;
nay, I fancied I talked with them, and looked at them steadily,
though I was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and this I
did till I often frightened myself with the images my fancy
represented to me. One time, in my sleep, I had the villainy of
the three pirate sailors so lively related to me by the first
Robinson Crusoe |
