| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: that, with a tone that was intended to give me pleasure, and
dissipate my doubts. 'That's it! that's it!' I had the air of
saying to myself. 'And the children?'
"'Thank God, they are very well. They went to sleep long ago.'
"I scarcely breathed, and I could not keep my jaw from trembling.
Then it was not as I thought. I had often before returned home
with the thought that a misfortune had awaited me, but had been
mistaken, and everything was going on as usual. But now things
were not going on as usual. All that I had imagined, all that I
believed to be chimeras, all really existed. Here was the truth.
"I was on the point of sobbing, but straightway the demon
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: this in the treatise "On Justification" (if God grants me grace).
On the other question as to whether the departed saints intercede
for us. For the present I am only going to give a brief answer as
I am considering publishing a sermon on the beloved angels in
which I will respond more fully on this matter (God willing).
First, you know that under the papacy it is not only taught that
the saints in heaven intercede for us - even though we cannot know
this as the Scripture does not tell us such - but the saints have
been made into gods, and that they are to be our patrons to whom
we should call. Some of them have never existed! To each of these
saints a particular power and might has been given - one over
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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 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: the interview.
MARLOW. Not in the least, Mr. Hastings. We like your company of all
things. (To him.) Zounds! George, sure you won't go? how can you
leave us?
HASTINGS. Our presence will but spoil conversation, so we'll retire to
the next room. (To him.) You don't consider, man, that we are to
manage a little tete-a-tete of our own. [Exeunt.]
MISS HARDCASTLE. (after a pause). But you have not been wholly an
observer, I presume, sir: the ladies, I should hope, have employed some
part of your addresses.
MARLOW. (Relapsing into timidity.) Pardon me, madam, I--I--I--as yet
She Stoops to Conquer |
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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in ETERNAL LINES to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee; -
the expression 'eternal lines' clearly alludes to one of his plays
that he was sending him at the time, just as the concluding couplet
points to his confidence in the probability of his plays being
always acted. In his address to the Dramatic Muse (Sonnets C. and
CI.), we find the same feeling.
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
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