| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: John; the sooner it can be cleared up the better for all
parties; it was a piece of business, sir - and so I took it,
and decided, on my own responsibility, to send a telegram to
San Francisco. Thanks to my quickness we may hear to-night.
There appears to be no doubt, sir, that John has been
abominably used.'
'When did this take place?' asked the father.
'Last night, sir, after you were asleep,' was the reply.
'It's most extraordinary,' said Mr. Nicholson. 'Do you mean
to say you have been out all night?'
'All night, as you say, sir. I have been to the telegraph
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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: bondage to works, and come to a recognition of the liberty of
faith.
We have therefore need to pray that God will lead us and make us
taught of God, that is, ready to learn from God; and will
Himself, as He has promised, write His law in our hearts;
otherwise there is no hope for us. For unless He himself teach us
inwardly this wisdom hidden in a mystery, nature cannot but
condemn it and judge it to be heretical. She takes offence at it,
and it seems folly to her, just as we see that it happened of old
in the case of the prophets and Apostles, and just as blind and
impious pontiffs, with their flatterers, do now in my case and
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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 The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: of expectancy to subside, Jeff knew that the name of Farnum was
going to be covered with glory.
The orator began in a low clear voice that reached to the last
seat in the gallery. Jeff knew that before he finished its echoes
would be ringing through the hall like a trumpet call to the
emotions of those present.
It was not destined that Jeff should hear a word of that stirring
peroration. His eye fell by chance upon a young woman seated in a
box beside an elderly man whom he recognized as Peter C. Frome.
From that instant he was lost to all sense perception that did not
focus upon her. For he was looking at the dryad who had come upon
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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 Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: all the first families of the better middle class--a wife, in short,
out of the Rue des Lombards--"
"That will do, Bixiou, enough; it is at an end. Be off!"
"Be off? I have a friend's privileges, and I shall take every
advantage of them.--What has come over you?"
"What has 'come over' me is my lady from Sancerre. She is a mother,
and we are going to live together happily to the end of our days.--You
would have heard it to-morrow, so you may as well be told it now."
"Many chimney-pots are falling on my head, as Arnal says. But if this
woman really loves you, my dear fellow, she will go back to the place
she came from. Did any provincial woman ever yet find her sea-legs in
The Muse of the Department |
