| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: twilight struggle. . .year in and year out, rejoicing in hope,
patient in tribulation. . .a struggle against the common enemies of man:
tyranny. . .poverty. . .disease. . .and war itself. Can we forge against
these enemies a grand and global alliance. . .North and South. . .
East and West. . .that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind?
Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted
the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger; I do not shrink
from this responsibility. . .I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us
would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: catching at new and grand ideas--all the more quick, perhaps, on
account of its own secret malaise and self-discontent; but it will
be irritable, spasmodic, hysterical. It will be apt to mistake
capacity of talk for capacity of action, excitement for
earnestness, virulence for force, and, too often; cruelty for
justice. It will lose manful independence, individuality,
originality; and when men act, they will act from the
consciousness of personal weakness, like sheep rushing over a
hedge, leaning against each other, exhorting each other to be
brave, and swaying about in mobs and masses. These were the
intellectual weaknesses which, as I read history, followed on
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: thirty sous into the money-lender's yellow, wrinkled hand; like the
Neapolitan lazzaroni, he was taking his best clothes out of pawn for a
state occasion. The coins dropped jingling into the till.
"What queer business are you up to?" asked Lousteau of the artist, an
opium-eater who dwelt among visions of enchanted palaces till he
either could not or would not create.
"HE lends you a good deal more than an ordinary pawnbroker on anything
you pledge; and, besides, he is so awfully charitable, he allows you
to take your clothes out when you must have something to wear. I am
going to dine with the Kellers and my mistress to-night," he
continued; "and to me it is easier to find thirty sous than two
|
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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: are really almost exactly the same. I mention this because
in tracing the origins or the evolution of religions it is
important to distinguish clearly what is essential and
universal from that which is merely local and temporary.
Some people, no doubt, would be shocked at the comparisons
just made; but surely it is much more inspiriting and
encouraging to think that whatever progress HAS been
made in the religious outlook of the world has come about
through the gradual mental growth and consent of the peoples,
rather than through some unique and miraculous event
of a rather arbitrary and unexplained character--which
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
