| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: circumcised them by the way.
JOS 5:8 And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the
people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were
whole.
JOS 5:9 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the
reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is
called Gilgal unto this day.
JOS 5:10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the
passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of
Jericho.
JOS 5:11 And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: said I.
And I told him what behooved, making rather a jumble of it, but clear
enough when done. He heard me out with very few questions, laughing
here and there like a man delighted: and the sound of his laughing
(above all there, in the dark, where neither one of us could see the
other) was extraordinary friendly to my heart.
"Ay, Davie, ye're a queer character," says he, when I had done: "a
queer bitch after a', and I have no mind of meeting with the like of
ye. As for your story, Prestongrange is a Whig like yoursel', so I'll
say the less of him; and, dod! I believe he was the best friend ye had,
if ye could only trust him. But Simon Fraser and James More are my ain
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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 An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: "Mary full of grace". Anyone who knows German also knows what an
expressive word "dear"(liebe) is: dear Mary, dear God, the dear
emperor, the dear prince, the dear man, the dear child. I do not
know if one can say this word "liebe" in Latin or in other
languages with so much depth of emotion that it pierces the heart
and echoes throughout as it does in our tongue.
I think that St. Luke, as a master of the Hebrew and Greek
tongues, wanted to clarify and articulate the Greek word
"kecharitomene" that the angel used. And I think that the angel
Gabriel spoke with Mary just as he spoke with Daniel, when he
called him "Chamudoth" and "Ish chamudoth, vir desiriorum", that
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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 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: of his dress a bag of pearls, placed it in his hand!
This munificent charity from the man of the waters to the poor
Cingalese was accepted with a trembling hand. His wondering eyes
showed that he knew not to what super-human beings he owed both
fortune and life.
At a sign from the Captain we regained the bank, and, following the road
already traversed, came in about half an hour to the anchor which held
the canoe of the Nautilus to the earth.
Once on board, we each, with the help of the sailors, got rid
of the heavy copper helmet.
Captain Nemo's first word was to the Canadian.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
