| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: constructive and inoffensive teaching that would be, to be taught
that one can be saved by works as well as by faith. That would be
like saying that it is not Christ's death alone that takes away
our sin but that our works have something to do with it. Now that
would be a fine way of honoring Christ's death, saying that it is
helped by our works, and that whatever it does our works can also
do - that we are his equal in goodness and power. This is the
devil itself for he cannot ever stop abusing the blood of Christ.
Therefore the matter itself, at its very core, necessitates one
say: "Faith alone makes one righteous." The nature of the German
tongue teaches us to say it in the same way. In addition, I have
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: interrogate the patrons of the one. To them we say: Are being and one two
different names for the same thing? But how can there be two names when
there is nothing but one? Or you may identify them; but then the name will
be either the name of nothing or of itself, i.e. of a name. Again, the
notion of being is conceived of as a whole--in the words of Parmenides,
'like every way unto a rounded sphere.' And a whole has parts; but that
which has parts is not one, for unity has no parts. Is being, then, one,
because the parts of being are one, or shall we say that being is not a
whole? In the former case, one is made up of parts; and in the latter
there is still plurality, viz. being, and a whole which is apart from
being. And being, if not all things, lacks something of the nature of
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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 Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: second time towards him. But at that instant a step
resounded on the staircase. The young people were so close,
that they would have been surprised in the arms of each
other, if Montalais had not violently pushed Malicorne, with
his back against the door, just then opening. A loud cry,
followed by angry reproaches, immediately resounded. It was
Madame de Saint-Remy who uttered the cry and the angry
words. The unlucky Malicorne almost crushed her between the
wall and the door she was coming in at.
"It is again that good-for-nothing!" cried the old lady.
"Always here!"
Ten Years Later |
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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: of reach of any vicissitude but one of health; and there he
yawns. If the people in the next villa took pot-shots at
him, he might be killed indeed, but so long as he escaped he
would find his blood oxygenated and his views of the world
brighter. If Mr. Mallock, on his way to the publishers,
should have his skirts pinned to a wall by a javelin, it
would not occur to him - at least for several hours - to ask
if life were worth living; and if such peril were a daily
matter, he would ask it never more; he would have other
things to think about, he would be living indeed - not lying
in a box with cotton, safe, but immeasurably dull. The
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