| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: scurrilous articles and be repeatedly caned in public, and now this
fourth, perhaps, to be an apothecary in Brazil. As for his old
father, he could conceive no reason for the lad's behaviour. 'I had
always bread for him,' he said; 'he ran away to annoy me. He loved
to annoy me. He had no gratitude.' But at heart he was swelling
with pride over his travelled offspring, and he produced a letter out
of his pocket, where, as he said, it was rotting, a mere lump of
paper rags, and waved it gloriously in the air. 'This comes from
America,' he cried, 'six thousand leagues away!' And the wine-shop
audience looked upon it with a certain thrill.
I soon became a popular figure, and was known for miles 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 Dreams by Olive Schreiner: I go to this far land which no one has ever reached? Oh, I am alone! I am
utterly alone!"
And Reason, that old man, said to her, "Silence! What do you hear?"
And she listened intently, and she said, "I hear a sound of feet, a
thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and they beat this
way!"
He said, "They are the feet of those that shall follow you. Lead on! make
a track to the water's edge! Where you stand now, the ground will be
beaten flat by ten thousand times ten thousand feet." And he said, "Have
you seen the locusts how they cross a stream? First one comes down to the
water-edge, and it is swept away, and then another comes and then another,
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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 Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: but not for long. Pashka, seeing my uneasiness, fastened his big
eyes upon the light, looked at me again, then again at the light.
. . .
"I am frightened," he whispered.
At this point, beside myself with terror, I clutched the boy with
one hand, huddled up to him, and gave the horse a violent lash.
"It's stupid!" I said to myself. "That phenomenon is only
terrible because I don't understand it; everything we don't
understand is mysterious."
I tried to persuade myself, but at the same time I did not leave
off lashing the horse. When we reached the posting station I
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
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 An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: questions such as these. So I ask all friends of the Truth to
seriously take this work to heart and faithfully pray to God for a
proper understanding of the divine Scriptures towards the
improvement and increase of our common Christendom. Amen.
Nuremberg Sept. 15, 1530.
To the Honorable and Worthy N., my favorite lord and friend.
Grace and peace in Christ, honorable, worthy and dear Lord and
friend. I received your writing with the two questions or queries
requesting my response. In the first place, you ask why I, in the
3rd chapter of Romans, translated the words of St. Paul:
"Arbitramur hominem iustificari ex fide absque operibus" as "We
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