| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: awake as regards God, but wholly asleep as regards things of this
world and in respect of herself. During the short time the union
lasts, she is as it were deprived of every feeling, and even if
she would, she could not think of any single thing. Thus she
needs to employ no artifice in order to arrest the use of her
understanding: it remains so stricken with inactivity that she
neither knows what she loves, nor in what manner she loves, nor
what she wills. In short, she is utterly dead to the things of
the world and lives solely in God. . . . I do not even know
whether in this state she has enough life left to breathe. It
seems to me she has not; or at least that if she does breathe,
|
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: impious teachers, then the evil is incurable, and leads astray
multitudes to irreparable ruin. Therefore, though it is good to
preach and write about penitence, confession, and satisfaction,
yet if we stop there, and do not go on to teach faith, such
teaching is without doubt deceitful and devilish. For Christ,
speaking by His servant John, not only said, "Repent ye," but
added, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. iii. 2).
For not one word of God only, but both, should be preached; new
and old things should be brought out of the treasury, as well the
voice of the law as the word of grace. The voice of the law
should be brought forward, that men may be terrified and brought
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: put an end to everything: to the proposed match and to Byelikov's
earthly existence. He did not hear what Varinka said to him; he
saw nothing. On reaching home, the first thing he did was to
remove her portrait from the table; then he went to bed, and he
never got up again.
"Three days later Afanasy came to me and asked whether we should
not send for the doctor, as there was something wrong with his
master. I went in to Byelikov. He lay silent behind the curtain,
covered with a quilt; if one asked him a question, he said 'Yes'
or 'No' and not another sound. He lay there while Afanasy, gloomy
and scowling, hovered about him, sighing heavily, and smelling
|
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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: Hicetes were beaten off and put to flight; and this, -- that the city
came to be taken by storm, and fall suddenly into their hands, upon
the defeat and rout of the enemy, -- we must in all justice ascribe
to the valor of the assailants, and the wise conduct of their
general; but that not so much as a man of the Corinthians was either
slain or wounded in the action, this the good fortune of Timoleon
seems to challenge for her own work, as though, in a sort of rivalry
with his own personal exertions, she made it her aim to exceed and
obscure his actions by her favors, that those who heard him commended
for his noble deeds might rather admire the happiness, than the merit
of them. For the fame of what was done not only passed through all
|
