| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: and this was, in a certain degree, to his credit. But it is a
mistake to call children good judges of character, except in
one direction, namely, their own. They understand it, up to the
level of their own stature; they know who loves them, but not
who loves virtue. Many a sinner has a great affection for
children, and no child will ever detect the sins of such a
friend; because, toward them, the sins do not exist.
The children, therefore, all loved Philip, and yet they turned
with delight, when out-door pleasures were in hand, to the
strong and adroit Harry. Philip inclined to the daintier
exercises, fencing, billiards, riding; but Harry's vigorous
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: sight against the wall. Do you remember rare moments when a
sudden light flashed over yourself, your world, God? when you
stood on a mountain-peak, seeing your life as it might have
been, as it is? one quick instant, when custom lost its force
and every-day usage? when your friend, wife, brother, stood in
a new light? your soul was bared, and the grave,--a foretaste
of the nakedness of the Judgment-Day? So it came before him,
his life, that night. The slow tides of pain he had borne
gathered themselves up and surged against his soul. His squalid
daily life, the brutal coarseness eating into his brain, as the
ashes into his skin: before, these things had been a dull
Life in the Iron-Mills |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: remain only the appearance and color of bread, and not true
bread. For it is in perfect agreement with Holy Scriptures
that there is, and remains, bread, as Paul himself calls it,
1 Cor. 10, 16: The bread which we break. And 1 Cor. 11, 28:
Let him so eat of that bread.
VII. Of the Keys.
The keys are an office and power given by Christ to the Church
for binding and loosing sin, not only the gross and well-known
sins, but also the subtle, hidden, which are known only to
God, as it is written in Ps. 19, 13: Who can understand his
errors? And in Rom. 7, 25 St. Paul himself complains that with
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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 Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Yet there was nothing for surprise,
Nor much that need be told:
Love, with his gift of pain, had given
More than one heart could hold.
The Mill
The miller's wife had waited long,
The tea was cold, the fire was dead;
And there might yet be nothing wrong
In how he went and what he said:
"There are no millers any more,"
Was all that she had heard him say;
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