| 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: was the fault of Eccius, who, in taking on him a burden beyond
his strength, and in furiously aiming at credit for himself,
unveiled to the whole world the disgrace of Rome.
Here is that enemy of yours, Leo, or rather of your Court; by his
example alone we may learn that an enemy is not more baneful than
a flatterer. For what did he bring about by his flattery, except
evils which no king could have brought about? At this day the
name of the Court of Rome stinks in the nostrils of the world,
the papal authority is growing weak, and its notorious ignorance
is evil spoken of. We should hear none of these things, if Eccius
had not disturbed the plans of Miltitz and myself for peace. He
|
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 The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: "I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day
during my first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of
great men! What then?"
"The mass I have just attended is connected with some events
which took place at the time when I lived in the garret where you
say Arthez lived; the one with the window where the clothes line
is hanging with linen over a pot of flowers. My early life was so
hard, my dear Bianchon, that I may dispute the palm of Paris
suffering with any man living. I have endured everything: hunger
and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, of shoes, of linen,
every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown on my frozen
|
