| 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: of My wrath." With these words God indicates how He wants us to
withstand Him and turn away His anger from one another, as it is
frequently written of the Prophet Moses, that he restrained God,
lest His anger should overwhelm the people of Israel.
XV. But what will they do, who not only do not regard such
misfortune of Christendom, and do not pray against it, but laugh
at it, take pleasure in it, condemn, malign, sing and talk of
their neighbor's sins, and yet dare, unafraid and unashamed, go
to church, hear mass, say prayers, and regard themselves and are
regarded as pious Christians? These truly are in need that we
pray twice for them, if we pray once for those whom they condemn,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Carthoris smiled, gripping his long-sword the more firmly.
Presently Jav gave a horrified moan, at the same time
pointing toward the door.
"He has come," he whimpered.
Carthoris and Thuvia looked in the direction the Lotharian
had indicated, expecting to see some strange and fearful
creature in human form; but to their astonishment they saw
the broad head and great-maned shoulders of a huge banth,
the largest that either ever had seen.
Slowly and with dignity the mighty beast advanced
into the room. Jav had fallen to the floor, and was
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: The maids also came to look; and the buxom cook, with her spotless
apron and bare arms akimbo, was drawn from her kitchen, and pledged
her culinary honour that such a pracht-kerl should be served up in
her very best style. The angler who is insensible to this sort of
indirect flattery through his fish does not exist. Even the most
indifferent of men thinks more favourably of people who know a good
trout when they see it, and sits down to his supper with kindly
feelings. Possibly he reflects, also, upon the incident as a hint
of the usual size of the fish in that neighbourhood. He remembers
that he may have been favoured in this case beyond his deserts by
good-fortune, and resolving not to put too heavy a strain upon it,
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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 Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: wine vapour from his head. And then he remembered that he and Yvonne
had quarrelled that day, and that he had resolved to leave his home
that night to seek fame and honour in the great world outside.
"When my poems are on every man's tongue," he told himself, in a fine
exhilaration, "she will, perhaps, think of the hard words she spoke
this day."
Except the roisterers in the tavern, the village folk were abed. David
crept softly into his room in the shed of his father's cottage and
made a bundle of his small store of clothing. With this upon a staff,
he set his face outward upon the road that ran from Vernoy.
He passed his father's herd of sheep, huddled in their nightly pen--
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