| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: II. There is a second bearing of witness to the truth, which is
still greater, with which we must fight against the evil spirits;
and this concerns not temporal matters, but the Gospel and the
truth of faith, which the evil spirit has at no time been able
to endure, and always so manages that the great among men, whom
it is hard to resist, must oppose and persecute it. Of which it
is written in Psalm lxxxii, "Rid the poor out of the hand of the
wicked, and help the forsaken to maintain his just cause."
Such persecution, it is true, has now become infrequent; but that
is the fault of the spiritual prelates, who do not stir up the
Gospel, but let it perish, and so have abandoned the very thing
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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 Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: accents from Jellyband, who stood clumsily trying to bar the way.
"PARDIEU, my good man," said Lady Blakeney, with some impatience,
"what are you standing in my way for, dancing about like a turkey with
a sore foot? Let me get to the fire, I am perished with the cold."
And the next moment Lady Blakeney, gently pushing mine host on
one side, had swept into the coffee-room.
There are many portraits and miniatures extant of Marguerite
St. Just--Lady Blakeney as she was then--but it is doubtful if any of
these really do her singular beauty justice. Tall, above the average,
with magnificent presence and regal figure, it is small wonder that
even the Comtesse paused for a moment in involuntary admiration before
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: had lived with for forty-eight years had developed neurasthenia and
at one time showed certain abnormalities characteristic of that
malady? Was that like the man who so loved his fellows and so well
knew the human heart? Or did he suddenly desire, when he was
eighty-three, and weak and helpless, to realize the idea of a
pilgrim's life?
If so, why did he take my sister Sasha and Dr. Makowicki with
him? He could not but know that in their company he would be just
as well provided with all the necessaries of life as he would have
been at Yásnaya Polyána. It would have been the most
palpable self-deception.
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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 Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: He was explaining how they might escape. It seemed that a
secret passage led from this very chamber to the vaults be-
neath the castle and from there through a narrow tunnel
below the moat to a cave in the hillside far beyond the
structure.
"They will not return again tonight to see your majesty,"
said Joseph, "and so we had best make haste to leave at
once. I have a rope and swords in readiness. We shall need
the rope to make our way down the hillside, but let us
hope that we shall not need the swords."
"I cannot leave Blentz," said Barney, "unless the Princess
The Mad King |
