| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: me?" an' he thrusts it back under her nose.
'"Gold - gold, past belief or counting," she says. "Let go o'
me, lad."
'"Sink the gold!" he says. "What'll I do, mother?" He coaxed
her like no woman could well withstand. I've seen him with 'em -
even when they were sea-sick.
'"If you will have it," she says at last, you shall have it. You'll
do a many things, and eating and drinking with a dead man
beyond the world's end will be the least of them. For you'll open a
road from the East unto the West, and back again, and you'll bury
your heart with your best friend by that road-side, and the road
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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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: For since men would have to be subject to this head, not from
God's command, but from their personal good pleasure, it would
easily and in a short time be despised, and at last retain no
member; neither would it have to be forever confined to Rome
or any other place, but it might be wherever and in whatever
church God would grant a man fit for the [taking upon him such
a great] office. Oh, the complicated and confused state of
affairs [perplexity] that would result!
Therefore the Church can never be better governed and
preserved than if we all live under one head, Christ, and all
the bishops equal in office (although they be unequal in
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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 A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: away from them every man of valor, and will give children to be
their princes and babes to rule over them." Four plagues God has
named in Scripture, Ezekiel xiv. The first and slightest, which
also David chose, is pestilence, the second is famine, the third
is war, the fourth is all manner of evil beasts, such as lions,
wolves, serpents, dragons; these are the wicked rulers. For where
these are, the land is destroyed, not only in body and property,
as in the others, but also in honor, discipline, virtue and the
soul's salvation. For pestilence and famine make people good and
rich; but war and wicked rulers bring to naught everything that
has to do with temporal and eternal possessions.
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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 Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: I stick to my friends through thick and thin."
Here he observed that my Chin was romantic, but that my Ears were
stingy, being small and close to my head. This irratated me,
although glad they are small. So I bought him a gardenia to wear
from a flour-seller, but as the flour-seller refused a check, he
had to pay for it.
In exchange he gave me his Frat pin to wear.
"You know what that means, don't you, Bab?" he said, in a low and
thriling tone. "It means, if you wear it, that you are my--well,
you're my girl."
Although thriled, I still retained my practacality.
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