| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: are occupied to scrub and clean and dress up their disreputable
Founder--to turn him from a proletarian rebel into a
stained-glass-window divinity.
The man who really lived, the carpenter's son, they take out and
crucify all over again. As a young poet has phrased it, they nail
him to a jeweled cross with cruel nails of gold. Come with me to
the New Golgotha and witness this crucifixion; take the nails of
gold in your hands, try the weight of the jeweled sledges! Here
is a sledge, in the form of a dignified and scholarly volume,
published by the exclusive house of Scribner, and written by the
Bishop of my boyhood, the Bishop whose train I carried in the
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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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: be true, you will appear as a liar, because you cannot prove it, and
you are, besides acting like a knave. For we ought never to deprive any
one of his honor or good name unless it be first taken away from him
publicly.
False witness, then, is everything which cannot be properly proved.
Therefore, what is not manifest upon sufficient evidence no one shall
make public or declare for truth; and in short, whatever is secret
should be allowed to remain secret, or, at any rate, should be secretly
reproved, as we shall hear. Therefore, if you encounter an idle tongue
which betrays and slanders some one, contradict such a one promptly to
his face, that he may blush thus many a one will hold his tongue who
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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 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: welcome it if it came while they defended their High
Priestess and her altar; but evidently there were
deaths, and deaths. Some strange superstition must
surround that polished blade, that no Oparian cared to
chance a death thrust from it, yet gladly rushed to the
slaughter of the ape-man's flaying spear.
Once outside the temple court, Werper communicated his
discovery to Tarzan. The ape-man grinned, and let
Werper go before him, brandishing the jeweled and holy
weapon. Like leaves before a gale, the Oparians
scattered in all directions and Tarzan and the Belgian
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
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 Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: 'I don't see much in that,' said John, drawing a long breath, and
looking round him like a man who felt relieved.
'Perhaps not,' returned his friend, 'but that's not all.'
'What more do you mean to say, sir, is to come?' asked John,
pausing in the act of wiping his face upon his apron. 'What are
you a-going to tell us of next?'
'What I saw.'
'Saw!' echoed all three, bending forward.
'When I opened the church-door to come out,' said the little man,
with an expression of face which bore ample testimony to the
sincerity of his conviction, 'when I opened the church-door to come
Barnaby Rudge |
