| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Deep in the greenest of the vales
That nestle near the coast of Wales,
The heaving main but just in view,
Robin and Ben together grew,
Together worked and played the fool,
Together shunned the Sunday school,
And pulled each other's youthful noses
Around the cots, among the roses.
Together but unlike they grew;
Robin was rough, and through and through
Bold, inconsiderate, and manly,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: But because I have essayed to expound the chief of these discoveries in a
treatise which certain considerations prevent me from publishing, I cannot
make the results known more conveniently than by here giving a summary of
the contents of this treatise. It was my design to comprise in it all
that, before I set myself to write it, I thought I knew of the nature of
material objects. But like the painters who, finding themselves unable to
represent equally well on a plain surface all the different faces of a
solid body, select one of the chief, on which alone they make the light
fall, and throwing the rest into the shade, allow them to appear only in
so far as they can be seen while looking at the principal one; so, fearing
lest I should not be able to compense in my discourse all that was in my
Reason Discourse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: And although the angels in heaven pray for us (as Christ
Himself also does), as also do the saints on earth, and
perhaps also in heaven, yet it does not follow thence that we
should invoke and adore the angels and saints, and fast, hold
festivals, celebrate Mass in their honor, make offerings, and
establish churches, altars, divine worship, and in still other
ways serve them, and regard them as helpers in need [as
patrons and intercessors], and divide among them all kinds of
help, and ascribe to each one a particular form of assistance,
as the Papists teach and do. For this is idolatry, and such
honor belongs alone to God. For as a Christian and saint upon
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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 Rivers by Henry van Dyke: was as dry as a theological novel. There was nothing left of it
except the bed and the bones; it was like a Connecticut stream in
the middle of August. All its pretty secrets were laid bare; all
its music was hushed. The pools that lingered among the rocks
seemed like big tears; and the voice of the forlorn rivulets that
trickled in here and there, seeking the parent stream, was a voice
of weeping and complaint.
For us the loss meant a hard day's work, scrambling over slippery
stones, and splashing through puddles, and forcing a way through
the tangled thickets on the bank, instead of a pleasant two hours'
run on a swift current. We ate our dinner on a sandbank in what
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