| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: monstrous Dorothy found this burned and distorted visage, how
deformed the little man looked to a woman of refined
sensibilities. It was difficult for Madeline to look into his
face. But she saw behind the blackened mask. And now she saw in
Monty's deep eyes a spirit of pure fun.
So, true to her word, Madeline remembered at an opportune moment,
when conversation had hushed and only the long, dismal wail of
coyotes broke the silence, to turn toward the little cowboy.
"Monty," she said, and paused for effect--"Monty, seeing that you
have had more adventures than all the cowboys together, tell us
about the most terrible time you ever had."
The Light of Western Stars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: 3. Non tamen solam intendit interiorem, immo interior nulla est,
nisi foris operetur varias carnis mortificationes.
4. Manet itaque pena, donec manet odium sui (id est penitentia
vera intus), scilicet usque ad introitum regni celorum.
5. Papa non vult nec potest ullas penas remittere preter eas, quas
arbitrio vel suo vel canonum imposuit.
6. Papa non potest remittere ullam culpam nisi declarando, et
approbando remissam a deo Aut certe remittendo casus reservatos
sibi, quibus contemptis culpa prorsus remaneret.
7. Nulli prorus remittit deus culpam, quin simul eum subiiciat
humiliatum in omnibus sacerdoti suo vicario.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: prepare his pupils, to receive the vitalizing truths of Christ.
Now, at last, the Messiah or Christ had come as a second Adam,
and being without sin had been raised by Jehovah out of Sheol and
taken up into heaven, as testimony to men that the power of sin
and death was at last defeated. The way henceforth to avoid death
and escape the exile to Sheol was to live spiritually like Jesus,
and with him to be dead to sensual requirements. Faith, in Paul's
apprehension, was not an intellectual assent to definitely
prescribed dogmas, but, as Matthew Arnold has well pointed out,
it was an emotional striving after righteousness, a developing
consciousness of God in the soul, such as Jesus had possessed,
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
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 Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: interlacement favored its progress. It even appeared that the current of
flame spread more rapidly among the summits of the trees than the current
of lava at their bases.
Thus it happened that the wild animals, jaguars, wild boars, capybaras,
koalas, and game of every kind, mad with terror, had fled to the banks of
the Mercy and to the Tadorn Marsh, beyond the road to Port Balloon. But the
colonists were too much occupied with their task to pay any attention to
even the most formidable of these animals. They had abandoned Granite
House, and would not even take shelter at the Chimneys, but encamped under
a tent, near the mouth of the Mercy.
Each day Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett ascended the plateau of
The Mysterious Island |
