| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: neither rank nor race, who would lead men to righteousness. It is
much more free from sacramentalism, from vestiges of the ancient
blood sacrifice, and its associated sacerdotalism, than
Christianity. The religion that will presently sway mankind can be
reached more easily from that starting-point than from the confused
mysteries of Trinitarian theology. Islam was never saddled with a
creed. With the very name "Islam" (submission to God) there is no
quarrel for those who hold the new faith. . . .
All the world over there is this stirring in the dry bones of the
old beliefs. There is scarcely a religion that has not its Bahaism,
its Modernists, its Brahmo Somaj, its "religion without theology,"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: this?--possibly to the gallows. Morris was trying to shave when
this idea struck him, and he laid the razor down. Here (in
Michael's words) was the total disappearance of a valuable uncle;
here was a time of inexplicable conduct on the part of a nephew
who had been in bad blood with the old man any time these seven
years; what a chance for a judicial blunder! 'But no,' thought
Morris, 'they cannot, they dare not, make it murder. Not that.
But honestly, and speaking as a man to a man, I don't see any
other crime in the calendar (except arson) that I don't seem
somehow to have committed. And yet I'm a perfectly respectable
man, and wished nothing but my due. Law is a pretty business.'
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