| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: man just cannot find any comfort at all. He cannot shake off at will the
nightmare of terror which the Law stirs up in his conscience. Of this terror
of the Law the Psalms furnish many glimpses.
The Law is a civil and a spiritual prison. And such it should be. For that
the Law is intended. Only the confinement in the prison of the Law must
not be unduly prolonged. It must come to an end. The freedom of faith
must succeed the imprisonment of the Law.
Happy the person who knows how to utilize the Law so that it serves the
purposes of grace and of faith. Unbelievers are ignorant of this happy
knowledge. When Cain was first shut up in the prison of the Law he felt
no pang at the fratricide he had committed. He thought he could pass it off
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: being beautiful. He began by trying to make me talk nonsense.
But I had been warned of that fiendish trait, and contradicted
him with great assurance. After a while he left off. So far
good. But his immobility, the thick elbow on the table, the
abrupt, unhappy voice, the shaded and averted face grew more and
more impressive. He kept inscrutably silent for a moment, and
then, placing me in a ship of a certain size, at sea, under
certain conditions of weather, season, locality, &c. &c.--all
very clear and precise--ordered me to execute a certain
manoeuvre. Before I was half through with it he did some
material damage to the ship. Directly I had grappled with the
Some Reminiscences |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: every fifth and every sixth year alternately, thus giving equal honour to
the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they
consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any one had
transgressed in anything, and passed judgment, and before they passed
judgment they gave their pledges to one another on this wise:--There were
bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten kings, being
left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god that
they might capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the
bulls, without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they
caught they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so
that the blood fell upon the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar,
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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 Heroes by Charles Kingsley: the two twin stars which never rise both at once.
And what became of Cheiron, the good immortal beast? That,
too, is a sad story; for the heroes never saw him more. He
was wounded by a poisoned arrow, at Pholoe among the hills,
when Heracles opened the fatal wine-jar, which Cheiron had
warned him not to touch. And the Centaurs smelt the wine,
and flocked to it, and fought for it with Heracles; but he
killed them all with his poisoned arrows, and Cheiron was
left alone. Then Cheiron took up one of the arrows, and
dropped it by chance upon his foot; and the poison ran like
fire along his veins, and he lay down and longed to die; and
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