| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: from homes like that den yonder, for help,--and no man listens."
She was weak; her brain faltered.
"Does God call me to this work? Does He call me?" she moaned.
He watched her eagerly.
"He calls you. He waits for your answer. Swear to me that you
will help His people. Give up father and mother and love, and go
down as Christ did. Help me to give liberty and truth and Jesus'
love to these wretches on the brink of hell. Live with them,
raise them with you."
She looked up, white; she was a weak, weak woman, sick for her
natural food of love.
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: withal suddenly stabbed herself. Which done, with one consent
they all vowed to root out the whole hated family of the
Tarquins; and bearing the dead body to Rome, Brutus acquainted
the people with the doer and manner of the vile deed, with a
bitter invective against the tyranny of the king; wherewith the
people were so moved, that with one consent and a general
acclamation the Tarquins were all exiled, and the state
government changed from kings to consuls.
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From the besieged Ardea all in post,
Borne by the trustless wings of false desire,
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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 King James Bible: world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil.
JOH 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
JOH 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
JOH 3:22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land
of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.
JOH 3:23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because
there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.
JOH 3:24 For John was not yet cast into prison.
King James Bible |
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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: to me, and for an hour or so almost turned my head, an art in which she
had great skill. This I say because I wish to be quite honest, although
it--I mean my head, for there was no heart involved in the matter--came
straight again at once. Her name was Mameena, and I have set down her
remarkable story elsewhere.
To return. As I have already written in another book, I passed my youth
with my old father, a Church of England clergyman, in what is now the
Cradock district of the Cape Colony.
Then it was a wild place enough, with a very small white population.
Among our few neighbours was a Boer farmer of the name of Henri Marais,
who lived about fifteen miles from our station, on a fine farm called
Marie |
