| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: the old man should be so unconscious of the black cloud that
wrapped them all about.
When the boat reached the shore again he leaped scrambling to the
beach, and as soon as his dinner was eaten he hurried away to
find the Dominie Jones.
He ran all the way from Abrahamson's hut to the parson's house,
hardly stopping once, and when he knocked at the door he was
panting and sobbing for breath.
The good man was sitting on the back-kitchen doorstep smoking his
long pipe of tobacco out into the sunlight, while his wife within
was rattling about among the pans and dishes in preparation of
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: down.
There is nothing so awkward, as courting a woman, an' please your honour,
whilst she is making sausages--So Tom began a discourse upon them; first,
gravely,--'as how they were made--with what meats, herbs, and spices.'--
Then a little gayly,--as, 'With what skins--and if they never burst--
Whether the largest were not the best?'--and so on--taking care only as he
went along, to season what he had to say upon sausages, rather under than
over;--that he might have room to act in--
It was owing to the neglect of that very precaution, said my uncle Toby,
laying his hand upon Trim's shoulder, that Count De la Motte lost the
battle of Wynendale: he pressed too speedily into the wood; which if he
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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 Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: an income of twenty thousand francs from the Funds, his pictures sell
for their weight in gold, and (what seems to him more extraordinary
than the invitations he receives occasionally to court balls) his name
and fame, mentioned so often for the last sixteen years by the press
of Europe, has at last penetrated to the valley of the Eastern
Pyrenees, where vegetate three veritable Loras: his father, his eldest
brother, and an old paternal aunt, Mademoiselle Urraca y Lora.
In the maternal line the painter has no relation left except a cousin,
the nephew of his mother, residing in a small manufacturing town in
the department. This cousin was the first to bethink himself of Leon.
But it was not until 1840 that Leon de Lora received a letter from
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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 Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: be worshipping God, nor fulfilling the First Commandment, since
it is impossible to worship God without ascribing to Him the
glory of truth and of universal goodness, as it ought in truth to
be ascribed. Now this is not done by works, but only by faith of
heart. It is not by working, but by believing, that we glorify
God, and confess Him to be true. On this ground faith alone is
the righteousness of a Christian man, and the fulfilling of all
the commandments. For to him who fulfils the first the task of
fulfilling all the rest is easy.
Works, since they are irrational things, cannot glorify God,
although they may be done to the glory of God, if faith be
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