| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: "Don't speak!"
"But what is the matter? Of course I won't look at it if you don't want
me to," he said, rather coldly, turning on his heel and going over towards
the window. "But, really, it seems rather absurd that I shouldn't see my
own work, especially as I am going to exhibit it in Paris in the autumn.
I shall probably have to give it another coat of varnish before that, so I
must see it some day, and why not to-day?"
"To exhibit it! You want to exhibit it?" exclaimed Dorian Gray,
a strange sense of terror creeping over him. Was the world going to be
shown his secret? Were people to gape at the mystery of his life?
That was impossible. Something--he did not know what--had to be done
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: "Not if the tenure of power is dependent upon its equitable
administration."
"The tenure of power is power. We cannot dictate to those who hold
it."
"The people can - the people in its might."
"Again I ask you, when you say the people do you mean the populace?
You do. What power can the populace wield? It can run wild. It
can burn and slay for a time. But enduring power it cannot wield,
because power demands qualities which the populace does not possess,
or it would not be populace. The inevitable, tragic corollary of
civilization is populace. For the rest, abuses can be corrected by
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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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: about a girl in another town where they used to live, a girl who,
when Janet was about 7 years old, wanted to show her about sex
practices. Janet knew this girl to be bad by general reputation,
and ran away when this offer was made, but it was too late--the
mental impress had been formed. She thinks her mother would
remember this girl. The things which this bad girl started to
tell came frequently up in Janet's mind and she wondered much
about them. No practices, however, were indulged in and even the
thoughts were fought against until the time mentioned above when
other sex ideas were implanted. Janet's mother had neither given
nor received confidences on this subject, and indeed never
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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 Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for
human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage),
then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as
well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ
possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast
of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ
claims as His.
If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is
the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul
is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and
then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life,
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