The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: children well and fluently and diligently exercise themselves in them
and keep them occupied with them.
Therefore it is the duty of every father of a family to question and
examine his children and servants at least once a week and to
ascertain what they know of it, or are learning and, if they do not
know it, to keep them faithfully at it. For I well remember the time,
indeed, even now it is a daily occurrence that one finds rude, old
persons who knew nothing and still know nothing of these things, and
who, nevertheless, go to Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and use
everything belonging to Christians, notwithstanding that those who come
to the Lord's Supper ought to know more and have a fuller understanding
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: the man who had heard mass in the garret three days ago.
"Who is it?" he asked; "who is the man with----"
"That is the headsman," answered M. Ragon, calling the executioner--
the executeur des hautes oeuvres--by the name he had borne under the
Monarchy.
"Oh! my dear, my dear! M. l'Abbe is dying!" cried out old Madame
Ragon. She caught up a flask of vinegar, and tried to restore the old
priest to consciousness.
"He must have given me the handkerchief that the King used to wipe his
brow on the way to his martyrdom," murmured he. " . . . Poor man!
. . . There was a heart in the steel blade, when none was found in all
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