| 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: for the real good works they neglect, and adorn and paint
themselves with the most insignificant, and want to be pious, to
mount to heaven in peaceful security.
But if you should say: "Why does not God do it alone and Himself,
since He can and knows how to help each one?" Yes, He can do it;
but He does not want to do it alone; He wants us to work with
Him, and does us the honor to want to work His work with us and
through us. And if we are not willing to accept such honor, He
will, after all, perform the work alone, and help the poor; and
those who were unwilling to help Him and have despised the great
honor of doing His work, He will condemn with the unrighteous,
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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 Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: Colonel McIntyre with him and was told that the Colonel had lost
valuable securities left at the bank. These securities had been
given by the treasurer of the bank to Jimmie Turnbull when he
presented a letter from Colonel McIntyre instructing the bank to
surrender the securities to Jimmie."
"Well?" questioned Ferguson. "Go on, sir."
"That letter was a forgery." Kent sat back and watched the
detective's rapidly changing expression. "And no trace has been
found of the Colonel's securities, last known to be in the
possession of Turnbull."
"Great heavens!" ejaculated Ferguson.
The Red Seal |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope
of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief Constitutional
term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of
the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.
I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution,
the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied,
if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision
in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all
the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will
endure forever--it being impossible to destroy it except by some action
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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 Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: visitor suggested. "Do you ever go there, Miss Evelina?"
"No, we don't very often; leastways we ain't been for a good
while." She sparkled at the prospect. "It would be lovely,
wouldn't it, Ann Eliza?"
"Why, yes," said the elder sister, coming back to her seat.
"Well, why don't we go next Sunday?" Mr. Ramy continued. "And
we'll invite Miss Mellins too--that'll make a gosy little party."
That night when Evelina undressed she took a jonquil from the
vase and pressed it with a certain ostentation between the leaves
of her prayer-book. Ann Eliza, covertly observing her, felt that
Evelina was not sorry to be observed, and that her own acute
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