| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: the sufferings, which would separate us from Him like a wall,
yea, like a wall of stone, and yet He looks upon me and does not
leave me, for He is standing and is ready graciously to help, and
through the window of dim faith He permits Himself to be seen.
And Jeremiah says in Lamentations, "He casts off men, but He does
it not willingly."
This faith they do not know at all, and give up, thinking that
God has forsaken them and is become their enemy; they even lay
the blame of their ills on men and devils, and have no confidence
at all in God. For this reason, too, their suffering is always
an offence and harmful to them, and yet they go and do some good
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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 Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: silent; I know of what you are about to speak,--the first, the last,
the only outrage ever offered to me. Never speak to me of that ball.
If as a Christian I have forgiven you, as a woman I still suffer from
your act."
"You are more pitiless than God himself," I said, forcing back the
tears that came into my eyes.
"I ought to be so, I am more feeble," she replied.
"But," I continued with the persistence of a child, "listen to me now
if only for the first, the last, the only time in your life."
"Speak, then," she said; "speak, or you will think I dare not hear
you."
The Lily of the Valley |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: but as she advanced she had a sudden vision of Owen,
standing outside in the cold autumn dusk and watching Darrow
and Sophy Viner as they faced each other across the lamplit
desk...The evocation was so vivid that it caught her breath
like a blow, and she sank down helplessly on the divan among
the piled-up books. Distinctly, at the moment, she
understood that the end had come. "When he speaks to me I
will tell him!" she thought...
Darrow, laying aside his pen, looked at her for a moment in
silence; then he stood up and shut the door.
"I must go to-morrow early," he said, sitting down beside
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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 The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: duskiness of the silent room. She had not been here at night
before, and the spirit of the place seemed more troubled and
insistent than ever it had in the quiet of the afternoons.
Caroline brushed her hair back from her damp forehead
and went over to the bow window. After raising it she sat down
upon the low seat. Leaning her head against the sill, and
loosening her nightgown at the throat, she half-closed her eyes
and looked off into the troubled night, watching the play of
the heat-lightning upon the massing clouds between the pointed
tops of the poplars.
Yes, she knew, she knew well enough, of what absurdities
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
