| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: again - to peace and mourning; the Royalist scourge had spread to
Taunton, and Blake lingered on at Lupton House, an unwelcome but an
undeniable guest.
His presence was as detestable to Richard now as it was to Ruth, for
Richard had to submit to the mockery with which the town rake lashed
his godly bearing and altered ways. More than once in gusts of sudden
valour the boy urged his sister to permit him to drive the baronet
from the house and let him do his worst. But Ruth, afraid for Richard,
bade him wait until the times were more settled. When the royal
vengeance had slaked its lust for blood it might matter little, perhaps,
what tales Sir Rowland might elect to carry.
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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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: consolation. What torture, rascality, and idolatry such
confession has produced is more than can be related.
As to satisfaction, this is by far the most involved
[perplexing] part of all. For no man could know how much to
render for a single sin, not to say how much for all. Here
they have resorted to the device of imposing a small
satisfaction, which could indeed be rendered, as five
Paternosters, a day's fast, etc.; for the rest [that was
lacking] of the [in their] repentance they were directed to
purgatory.
Here, too, there was nothing but anguish and [extreme] misery.
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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 Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: At last, one morning, he bethought himself how that Melmoth (now among
the blessed) had made the proposal of an exchange, and how that he had
accepted it; others, doubtless, would follow his example; for in an
age proclaimed, by the inheritors of the eloquence of the Fathers of
the Church, to be fatally indifferent to religion, it should be easy
to find a man who would accept the conditions of the contract in order
to prove its advantages.
"There is one place where you can learn what kings will fetch in the
market; where nations are weighed in the balance and systems
appraised; where the value of a government is stated in terms of the
five-franc piece; where ideas and beliefs have their price, and
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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 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: so I held up my head, and hoped for the best.
48 Farmer Thoroughgood and His Grandson Willie
At this sale, of course I found myself in company with the old
broken-down horses -- some lame, some broken-winded, some old,
and some that I am sure it would have been merciful to shoot.
The buyers and sellers, too, many of them, looked not much better off
than the poor beasts they were bargaining about. There were poor old men,
trying to get a horse or a pony for a few pounds, that might drag about
some little wood or coal cart. There were poor men trying to sell
a worn-out beast for two or three pounds, rather than have the greater loss
of killing him. Some of them looked as if poverty and hard times
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