| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: him of the man he was seeking--suggested a mysterious similitude
to the young fellow he had distrusted and disliked from the first.
However that might have been, the silence was not very prolonged.
He took another oblique step.
"I reckon I had no more than a two-mile pull to your ship.
Not a bit more."
"And quite enough, too, in this awful heat," I said.
Another pause full of mistrust followed. Necessity, they say, is mother
of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions.
And I was afraid he would ask me point-blank for news of my other self.
"Nice little saloon, isn't it?" I remarked, as if noticing for the first
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
In this verse the Apostle summarizes his instructions on the proper
support of the ministers and of the poor. He paraphrases the words of
Christ: "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the
night cometh, when no man can work." (John 9:4.) Our good deeds are to
be directed primarily at those who share the Christian faith with us, "the
household of faith," as Paul calls them, among whom the ministers rank
first as objects of our well doing.
VERSE 11. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine
own hand.
With these words the Apostle intends to draw the Galatians on. "I never,"
|
