| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: eighteen centuries ago, the Helper stands unwelcome in the world;
that your own heart, as well as the great humanity, asks an
unrendered justice. Does he utter all the problems of To-Day?
Vandyke, standing higher, perhaps, or, at any rate, born with
hopefuller brain, would show you how, by the very instant peril
of the hour, is lifted clearer into view the eternal prophecy of
coming content: could tell you that the unquiet earth, and the
unanswering heaven are instinct with it: that the ungranted
prayer of your own life should teach it to you: that in that Book
wherein God has not scorned to write the history of America, he
finds the quiet surety that the rescue of the world is near at
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: thought of heaven and hell supply the motives of our actions, or at any
time seriously affect the substance of our belief.
8. Another life must be described, if at all, in forms of thought and not
of sense. To draw pictures of heaven and hell, whether in the language of
Scripture or any other, adds nothing to our real knowledge, but may perhaps
disguise our ignorance. The truest conception which we can form of a
future life is a state of progress or education--a progress from evil to
good, from ignorance to knowledge. To this we are led by the analogy of
the present life, in which we see different races and nations of men, and
different men and women of the same nation, in various states or stages of
cultivation; some more and some less developed, and all of them capable of
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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 Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: the turtle, but it was vacant. Nowhere was there any sign of
Patkasa or the deer. Then the babes did howl!
"Be still!" said father Iktomi to his children. "I know where
Patkasa lives. Follow me. I shall take you to the turtle's
dwelling." He ran along a narrow footpath toward the creek near
by. Close upon his heels came his children with tear-streaked
faces.
"There!" said Iktomi in a loud whisper as he gathered his
little ones on the bank. "There is Patkasa broiling venison!
There is his teepee, and the savory fire is in his front yard!"
The young Iktomis stretched their necks and rolled their round
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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 Little Britain by Washington Irving: Their brother, too, who had been articled to an attorney, set up
for a dandy and a critic, characters hitherto unknown in these
parts; and he confounded the worthy folks exceedingly by
talking about Kean, the opera, and the "Edinburgh Review."
What was still worse, the Lambs gave a grand ball, to which
they neglected to invite any of their old neighbors; but they had
a great deal of genteel company from Theobald's Road, Red-
Lion Square, and other parts towards the west. There were
several beaux of their brother's acquaintance from Gray's Inn
Lane and Hatton Garden; and not less than three Aldermen's
ladies with their daughters. This was not to be forgotten or
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