| 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: unless the Gospel be preached, as He says: "As oft as ye do this,
remember me"; that is, as St. Paul says, "Ye shall preach of His
death." For this reason it is dreadful and horrible in our times
to be a bishop, pastor and preacher; for no one any longer knows
this testament, to say nothing of their preaching it, although
this is their highest and only duty and obligation. How heavily
must they give account for so many souls who must perish because
of this lack in preaching.
IV. We should pray, not as the custom is, counting many pages or
beads, but fixing our mind upon some pressing need, desire it
with all earnestness, and exercise faith and confidence toward
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: separation in verse. Whether or not his Majesty has been true to his
bargain, the laggard posts of the Pacific may perhaps inform me in
six months, perhaps not before a year. The following lines represent
my part of the contract, and it is hoped, by their pictures of
strange manners, they may entertain a civilised audience. Nothing
throughout has been invented or exaggerated; the lady herein referred
to as the author's muse has confined herself to stringing into rhyme
facts or legends that I saw or heard during two months' residence
upon the island. - R. L. S.]
ENVOI
Let us, who part like brothers, part like bards;
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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 Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: dagger in my heart, and I had an insane hallucination. Lucy had
moved, and her pretty head was in profile, in the same attitude
and with the same lines as her mother. I do not know what shadow
or what play of light had hardened and altered the color of her
delicate features, effacing their ideal prettiness, but the more
I looked at them both, at the one who was young and the one who
was old, the greater the distressing resemblance became.
"I saw Lucy growing older and older, striving against those
accumulating years which bring wrinkles in the face, produce a
double chin and crow's-feet, and spoil the mouth. THEY ALMOST
LOOKED LIKE TWINS.
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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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: it, that there would be ought in it, if proved, contrary to sound
religion.
I am, I must honestly confess, more and more unable to perceive
anything which an orthodox Christian may not hold, in those
physical theories of "evolution," which are gaining more and more
the assent of our best zoologists and botanists. All that they ask
us to believe is, that "species" and "families," and indeed the
whole of organic nature, have gone through, and may still be going
through, some such development from a lowest germ, as we know that
every living individual, from the lowest zoophyte to man himself,
does actually go through. They apply to the whole of the living
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