| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: Sergius did not reply, but only smiled meekly, placing his wallet
under the bench on which he sat.
'Masha, do you know who this is?'--And in a whisper Praskovya
Mikhaylovna told her daughter who he was, and together they then
carried the bed and the cradle out of the tiny room and cleared
it for Sergius.
Praskovya Mikhaylovna led him into it.
'Here you can rest. Don't take offence . . . but I must go out.'
'Where to?'
'I have to go to a lesson. I am ashamed to tell you, but I teach
music!'
|
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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: nature, Bishop Colenso's experiences among the Zulus may
appropriately be remembered. When expounding the Bible
to these supposedly backward 'niggers' he was met at all
points by practical interrogations and arguments which he
was perfectly unable to answer--especially over the recorded
passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites in a single night.
From the statistics given in the Sacred Book these naughty
savages proved to him absolutely conclusively that the numbers
of fugitives were such that even supposing them
to have marched--men, women and children--FIVE ABREAST
and in close order, they would have formed a column 100
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
