| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: boastfully called popes, bishops, and lords, it calls ministers,
servants, and stewards, who are to serve the rest in the ministry
of the word, for teaching the faith of Christ and the liberty of
believers. For though it is true that we are all equally priests,
yet we cannot, nor, if we could, ought we all to, minister and
teach publicly. Thus Paul says, "Let a man so account of us as of
the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1
Cor. iv. 1).
This bad system has now issued in such a pompous display of power
and such a terrible tyranny that no earthly government can be
compared to it, as if the laity were something else than
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: Babo had to pay back the two hundred pennies that the cook had
given him for curing his wife.
The wise man made a cross upon the woman's forehead, and up she
sat, as well--but no better--as before.
"And now be off," said the cook, "or I will call the servants and
give you both a drubbing for a pair of scamps."
Simon Agricola said never a word until they had gotten out of the
town. There his anger boiled over, like water into the fire.
"Look," said he to Babo: " Born a fool, live a fool, die a fool.'
I want no more of you. Here are two roads; you take one, and I
will take the other."
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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 Message by Honore de Balzac: birth; that plenty of women were younger at forty than many a
girl of twenty; and, to come to the point, that a woman is no
older than she looks.
This theory set no limits to the age of love, so we struck out,
in all good faith, into a boundless sea. At length, when we had
portrayed our mistresses as young, charming, and devoted to us,
women of rank, women of taste, intellectual and clever; when we
had endowed them with little feet, a satin, nay, a delicately
fragrant skin, then came the admission--on his part that Madame
Such-an-one was thirty-eight years old, and on mine that I
worshiped a woman of forty. Whereupon, as if released on either
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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 Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: Mukhorty lifted his head and then gave a sudden jerk.
'That's it! That's it!' cried Nikita. 'Don't be afraid--you
won't sink!'
One plunge, another, and a third, and at last Mukhorty was out
of the snow-drift, and stood still, breathing heavily and
shaking the snow off himself. Nikita wished to lead him
farther, but Vasili Andreevich, in his two fur coats, was so
out of breath that he could not walk farther and dropped into
the sledge.
'Let me get my breath!' he said, unfastening the kerchief with
which he had tied the collar of his fur coat at the village.
Master and Man |
