| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: 88. Again: -- "What greater blessing could come to the Church
than if the pope were to do a hundred times a day what he now
does once, and bestow on every believer these remissions and
participations?"
89. "Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of
souls rather than money, why does he suspend the indulgences
and pardons granted heretofore, since these have equal
efficacy?"
90. To repress these arguments and scruples of the laity by
force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to
expose the Church and the pope to the ridicule of their
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: deep in the mud, stood running his snout into a rotten pumpkin and
wriggling his curled tail.
Waldo wondered dreamily as he stared why they were pleasant to look at.
Taken singly they were not beautiful; taken together they were. Was it not
because there was a certain harmony about them? The old sow was suited to
the little pigs, and the little pigs to their mother, the old boar to the
rotten pumpkin, and all to the mud. They suggested the thought of nothing
that should be added, of nothing that should be taken away. And, he
wondered on vaguely, was not that the secret of all beauty, that you who
look on-- So he stood dreaming, and leaned further and further over the
sod wall, and looked at the pigs.
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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 The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: intonation which might well have brought dampness to my eyes but
which only made me regret that I didn't kill the honest Ortega at
sight. Suddenly Dona Rita swung round and seizing her loose hair
with both hands started twisting it up before one of the sumptuous
mirrors. The wide fur sleeves slipped down her white arms. In a
brusque movement like a downward stab she transfixed the whole mass
of tawny glints and sparks with the arrow of gold which she
perceived lying there, before her, on the marble console. Then she
sprang away from the glass muttering feverishly, "Out - out - out
of this house," and trying with an awful, senseless stare to dodge
past me who had put myself in her way with open arms. At last I
The Arrow of Gold |
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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: on the floor that there had been no struggle in that room. "He has
died outside," he thought. Yes, outside in that narrow corridor,
where there was hardly room to turn, the mysterious death had come
to his poor dear Tom. The impulse of snatching up his pistols and
rushing out of the room abandoned Byrne suddenly. For Tom, too,
had been armed - with just such powerless weapons as he himself
possessed - pistols, a cutlass! And Tom had died a nameless death,
by incomprehensible means.
A new thought came to Byrne. That stranger knocking at the door
and fleeing so swiftly at his appearance had come there to remove
the body. Aha! That was the guide the withered witch had promised
Within the Tides |
