| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: with all my power the judgment of those men concerning me, nor
would anything have pleased me better, than to recant such
rashness and impiety. I have called you Daniel in Babylon; and
every reader thoroughly knows with what distinguished zeal I
defended your conspicuous innocence against Silvester, who tried
to stain it. Indeed, the published opinion of so many great men
and the repute of your blameless life are too widely famed and
too much reverenced throughout the world to be assailable by any
man, of however great name, or by any arts. I am not so foolish
as to attack one whom everybody praises; nay, it has been and
always will be my desire not to attack even those whom public
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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 Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: devoured his patrimony, when he kenned that he was living like a
ratten in a Dunlap cheese, and diminishing his means at a' hands.
I canna bide to think on't." With this she broke out into a
snatch of a ballad, but little of mirth was there either in the
tone or the expression:--
"For he did spend, and make an end
Of gear that his forefathers wan;
Of land and ware he made him bare,
So speak nae mair of the auld gudeman."
"Come, dame," said I, "it is a long lane that has no turning. I
will not keep from you that I have heard something of this poor
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