| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: offertory
up the aisle on Sunday morning?"
"Certainly; though there the influence is less direct; and I must
confess
that I have my doubts in regard to the collection for Foreign
Missions.
That always seems to me romantic and wasteful. You never hear
from it in
any definite way. They say the missionaries have done a good
deal
to open the way for trade; perhaps--but they have also gotten us
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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 Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: That I have no quarrel with him, nor has he any with me."
"He says," replied Abdul, after delivering this message to
the Arab, "that besides being a dog yourself that you are the
son of one, and that your grandmother was a hyena.
Incidentally you are a liar."
The attention of those near by had now been attracted
by the altercation, and the sneering laughs that followed
this torrent of invective easily indicated the trend of the
sympathies of the majority of the audience.
Tarzan did not like being laughed at, neither did he relish
the terms applied to him by the Arab, but he showed no
The Return of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: The body of George the fourteenth baron, together with two or
three others, all of more recent date than the great bulk of
coffins piled there, had, for want of room, been placed at the end
of the vault on tressels, and not in niches like the others.
These it was necessary to remove, to form behind them the chamber
in which they were ultimately to be deposited. Stephen, finding
the place and proceedings in keeping with the sombre colours of
his mind, waited there still.
'Simeon, I suppose you can mind poor Lady Elfride, and how she ran
away with the actor?' said John Smith, after awhile. 'I think it
fell upon the time my father was sexton here. Let us see--where
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
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: Christian faith has appeared to many an easy thing; nay, not a
few even reckon it among the social virtues, as it were; and this
they do because they have not made proof of it experimentally,
and have never tasted of what efficacy it is. For it is not
possible for any man to write well about it, or to understand
well what is rightly written, who has not at some time tasted of
its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation; while he who has
tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write,
speak, think, or hear about it sufficiently. For it is a living
fountain, springing up into eternal life, as Christ calls it in
John iv.
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