| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: New Testament into German to the best of my ability, and that I
have not forced anyone to read it. Rather I have left it open,
only doing the translation as a service to those who could not do
it as well. No one is forbidden to do it better. If someone does
not wish to read it, he can let it lie, for I do not ask anyone to
read it or praise anyone who does! It is my Testament and my
translation - and it shall remain mine. If I have made errors
within it (although I am not aware of any and would most certainly
be unwilling to intentionally mistranslate a single letter) I will
not allow the papists to judge for their ears continue to be too
long and their hee-haws too weak for them to be critical of my
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: The thing shall be done! Bring me paper and ink,
The best there is time to procure."
The Beaver brought paper,portfolio, pens,
And ink in unfailing supplies:
While strange creepy creatures came out of their dens,
And watched them with wondering eyes.
So engrossed was the Butcher, he heeded them not,
As he wrote with a pen in each hand,
And explained all the while in a popular style
Which the Beaver could well understand.
"Taking Three as the subject to reason about--
The Hunting of the Snark |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: thoughtfully, when the doctor came to a pause.
"Yes, all quite harmless. Of course, there is the man who strangely
enough considers himself the reincarnation of the famous French
murderer, the goldsmith Cardillac, who, as you remember, kept all
Paris in a fervour of excitement by his crimes during the reign of
Louis XIV. But in spite of his weird mania this man is the most
good-natured of any. He has been shut up in his room for several
days now. He was a mechanician by trade, living in Budapest, and
an unsuccessful invention turned his mind."
"Is he a large, powerful man?" asked Muller.
Dr. Orszay looked a bit surprised. "Why do you ask that? He does
|
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 The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "Well?" he inquired. "I suppose - " Then he saw her face.
"Sorry, mother. What's the trouble?"
"Wallie, I saw Dick Livingstone in Chicago."
XXXVI
During August Dick had labored in the alfalfa fields of Central
Washington, a harvest hand or "working stiff" among other migratory
agricultural workers. Among them, but not entirely of them.
Recruited from the lowest levels as men grade, gathered in at a
slave market on the coast, herded in bunk houses alive with vermin,
fully but badly fed, overflowing with blasphemy and filled with
sullen hate for those above them in the social scale, the "stiffs"
The Breaking Point |
