| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: with open hearts and unerring sense of justice, are marvelously ready
to respond to love. Their love knows passion and jealousy and the most
gracious delicacy of feeling; they find the tenderest words of
expression; they trust you--put an entire belief in you. Perhaps there
are no undutiful children without undutiful mothers, for a child's
affection is always in proportion to the affection that it receives--
in early care, in the first words that it hears, in the response of
the eyes to which a child first looks for love and life. All these
things draw them closer to the mother or drive them apart. God lays
the child under the mother's heart, that she may learn that for a long
time to come her heart must be its home. And yet--there are mothers
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: they have been in doing them!
So out with it, you papal asses! Say that this is the teaching of
Christendom: these stinking lies which you villains and traitors
have forced upon Christendom and for the sake of which you
murderers have killed many Christians. Why each letter of every
papal law gives testimony to the fact that nothing has ever been
taught by the counsel and the consent of Christendom. There is
nothing there but "districte precipiendo mandamus" ["we teach and
strictly command"]. That has been your Holy Spirit. Christendom
has had to suffer this tyranny. This tyranny has robbed it of the
sacrament and, not by its own fault, has been held in captivity.
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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 A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: "The fraternal understanding which unites the Ancient Order of Hibernians
and the German-American Alliance receives our unqualified endorsement.
This unity of effort in all matters of a public nature intended to
circumvent the efforts of England to secure an Anglo-American alliance
have been productive of very successful results. The congratulations of
those of us who live under the flag of the United States are extended to
our German-American fellow citizens upon the conquests won by the
fatherland, and we assure them of our unshaken confidence that the German
Empire will crush England and aid in the liberation of Ireland, and be a
real defender of small nations." See the Boston Herald of July 22, 1916.
During our Civil War, in 1862, a resolution of sympathy with the South
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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 A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: A servant! That I do most sadly, quoth I. - Because, Monsieur,
said the landlord, there is a clever young fellow, who would be
very proud of the honour to serve an Englishman. - But why an
English one, more than any other? - They are so generous, said the
landlord. - I'll be shot if this is not a livre out of my pocket,
quoth I to myself, this very night. - But they have wherewithal to
be so, Monsieur, added he. - Set down one livre more for that,
quoth I. - It was but last night, said the landlord, QU'UN MILORD
ANGLOIS PRESENTOIT UN ECU E LA FILLE DE CHAMBRE. - TANT PIS POUR
MADEMOISELLE JANATONE, said I.
Now Janatone, being the landlord's daughter, and the landlord
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