| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: chastity, patience, etc.
Article XIX: Of the Cause of Sin.
Of the Cause of Sin they teach that, although God does create
and preserve nature, yet the cause of sin is the will of the
wicked, that is, of the devil and ungodly men; which will,
unaided of God, turns itself from God, as Christ says John 8,
44: When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.
Article XX: Of Good Works.
Our teachers are falsely accused of forbidding good Works. For
their published writings on the Ten Commandments, and others
of like import, bear witness that they have taught to good
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: But the gift of original thought which makes a great man he did not
possess, and it can never be acquired. Paz, great in heart only,
approached in heart to the sublime; but in the sphere of sentiments,
being more a man of action than of thought, he kept his thoughts to
himself; and they only served therefore to eat his heart out. What,
after all, is a thought unexpressed?
After Clementine's little speech, the Marquis de Ronquerolles and his
sister exchanged a singular glance, embracing their niece, Comte Adam,
and Paz. It was one of those rapid scenes which take place only in
France and Italy,--the two regions of the world (all courts excepted)
where eyes can say everything. To communicate to the eye the full
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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 The Republic by Plato: cannot be destroyed by that, she cannot be destroyed by any other. Yet
Plato has acknowledged that the soul may be so overgrown by the
incrustations of earth as to lose her original form; and in the Timaeus he
recognizes more strongly than in the Republic the influence which the body
has over the mind, denying even the voluntariness of human actions, on the
ground that they proceed from physical states (Tim.). In the Republic, as
elsewhere, he wavers between the original soul which has to be restored,
and the character which is developed by training and education...
The vision of another world is ascribed to Er, the son of Armenius, who is
said by Clement of Alexandria to have been Zoroaster. The tale has
certainly an oriental character, and may be compared with the pilgrimages
The Republic |
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 The Pupil by Henry James: never any independence or resentment or disgust. If his father or
his brother would only knock some one down once or twice a year!
Clever as they were they never guessed the impression they made.
They were good-natured, yes - as good-natured as Jews at the doors
of clothing-shops! But was that the model one wanted one's family
to follow? Morgan had dim memories of an old grandfather, the
maternal, in New York, whom he had been taken across the ocean at
the age of five to see: a gentleman with a high neck-cloth and a
good deal of pronunciation, who wore a dress-coat in the morning,
which made one wonder what he wore in the evening, and had, or was
supposed to have "property" and something to do with the Bible
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