| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: better kind of doctrine. Augustine also forbids that men's
consciences should be burdened with such observances, and
prudently advises Januarius that he must know that they are to
be observed as things indifferent; for such are his words.
Wherefore our teachers must not be looked upon as having taken
up this matter rashly or from hatred of the bishops, as some
falsely suspect. There was great need to warn the churches of
these errors, which had arisen from misunderstanding the
traditions. For the Gospel compels us to insist in the
churches upon the doctrine of grace, and of the righteousness
of faith; which, however, cannot be understood, if men think
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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 Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: permitting our choirs to discard the droning and sentimental
modern "psalm-tune" for the inspiring harmonies of Beethoven and
Mozart; and we admit the classical picture and the undraped
statue to a high place in our esteem. Yet with all this it will
probably be some time before genuine art ceases to be an exotic
among us, and becomes a plant of unhindered native growth. It
will be some time before we cease to regard pictures and statues
as a higher species of upholstery, and place them in the same
category with poems and dramas, duly reverencing them as
authentic revelations of the beauty which is to be found in
nature. It will be some time before we realize that art is a
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fete; and it
was his own guiding taste which had given character to the
masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare
and glitter and piquancy and phantasm--much of what has been since
seen in "Hernani". There were arabesque figures with
unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such
as the madman fashions. There were much of the beautiful, much of
the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and
not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro
in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of
dreams. And these--the dreams--writhed in and about taking hue
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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 Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: learn; the Observers remarked that her hands were white, her feet
small, her movements a trifle too undulating. But, nevertheless,
individuals of all species envied or disputed Octave's happiness,
agreeing, for once in a way, that Madame Firmiani was the most
aristocratically beautiful woman in Paris.
Still young, rich, a perfect musician, intelligent, witty, refined,
and received (as a Cadignan) by the Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, that
oracle of the noble faubourg, loved by her rivals the Duchesse de
Maufrigneuse her cousin, the Marquise d'Espard, and Madame de Macumer,
--Madame Firmiani gratified all the vanities which feed or excite
love. She was therefore sought by too many men not to fall a victim to
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