| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs:
The plant men, with their blood-sucking hands, and the monstrous
white apes that make Dor hideous by day, were hidden in their
lairs for the night.
There was no longer a Holy Thern upon the balcony in the Golden
Cliffs above the Iss to summon them with weird cry to the victims
floating down to their maws upon the cold, broad bosom of ancient Iss.
The navies of Helium and the First Born had cleared the
fortresses and the temples of the therns when they had refused to
The Warlord of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: doesn't really settle down to-nice quiet enjoyment."
But from his cot on the sleeping-porch he heard her weeping, slowly, without
hope.
IV
For a month they watched the social columns, and waited for a return
dinner-invitation.
As the hosts of Sir Gerald Doak, the McKelveys were headlined all the week
after the Babbitts' dinner. Zenith ardently received Sir Gerald (who had come
to America to buy coal). The newspapers interviewed him on prohibition,
Ireland, unemployment, naval aviation, the rate of exchange, tea-drinking
versus whisky-drinking, the psychology of American women, and daily life as
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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 Market-Place by Harold Frederic: another cigar, tried on various caps till he found a leathern
one to suit him, and then dawdled about the room and the
adjoining conservatory for what seemed to him more than half
an hour. This phase of the aristocratic routine, he felt,
did not commend itself so warmly to him as did some others.
Everybody else, however, seemed to regard it as so wholly
a matter of course that Plowden should do as he liked,
that he forbore formulating a complaint even to himself.
At last, this nobleman's valet descended the stairs
once more. "His Lordship will be down very shortly
now, sir," he declared--"and will you be good enough
The Market-Place |
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 Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: Thou shalt have no other gods. . .showing mercy unto thousands . . .
honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land. . ."
(Ex. 20:2, 3, 6, 12.) Are these not excellent laws, perfect wisdom? "Let
not God speak with us, lest we die," cried the children of Israel. Is it not
amazing that a person should refuse to hear things that are good for him?
Any person would be glad to hear, I should think, that he has a gracious
God who shows mercy unto thousands. Is it not amazing that people hate
the Law that promotes their safety and welfare, e.g., "Thou shalt not kill;
thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal"?
The Law can do nothing for us except to arouse the conscience. Before the
Law comes to me I feel no sin. But when the Law comes, sin, death, and
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