| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: free and healed by the teaching of faith and liberty. Thus the
Apostle says, "If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no
flesh while the world standeth" (1 Cor. viii. 13); and again, "I
know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing
unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be
unclean, to him it is unclean. It is evil for that man who eateth
with offence" (Rom. xiv. 14, 20).
Thus, though we ought boldly to resist those teachers of
tradition, and though the laws of the pontiffs, by which they
make aggressions on the people of God, deserve sharp reproof, yet
we must spare the timid crowd, who are held captive by the laws
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: im-pu-dent and dis-a-gree-a-ble, too. But if you will try to cure
those faults I will not tell any-one how help-less you are."
"I'll try, of course," replied the Wheeler, eagerly. "And thank you,
Mr. Tiktok, for your kindness."
"I am on-ly a ma-chine," said Tiktok. "I can not be kind an-y more
than I can be sor-ry or glad. I can on-ly do what I am wound up to do."
"Are you wound up to keep my secret?" asked the Wheeler, anxiously.
"Yes; if you be-have your-self. But tell me: who rules the Land of Ev
now?" asked the machine.
"There is no ruler," was the answer, "because every member of the
royal family is imprisoned by the Nome King. But the Princess
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: the sort of society we've been asked to meet," he said. "For us
old folk it didn't matter; but for Grace--Giles should have known
better!"
Meanwhile, in the empty house from which the guests had just
cleared out, the subject of their discourse was walking from room
to room surveying the general displacement of furniture with no
ecstatic feeling; rather the reverse, indeed. At last he entered
the bakehouse, and found there Robert Creedle sitting over the
embers, also lost in contemplation. Winterborne sat down beside
him.
"Well, Robert, you must be tired. You'd better get on to bed."
The Woodlanders |
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 Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shall thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
CXLVII
My love is as a fever longing still,
For that which longer nurseth the disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
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