| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: from faith alone. Nay, were he so foolish as to pretend to be
justified, set free, saved, and made a Christian, by means of any
good work, he would immediately lose faith, with all its
benefits. Such folly is prettily represented in the fable where a
dog, running along in the water and carrying in his mouth a real
piece of meat, is deceived by the reflection of the meat in the
water, and, in trying with open mouth to seize it, loses the meat
and its image at the same time.
Here you will ask, "If all who are in the Church are priests, by
what character are those whom we now call priests to be
distinguished from the laity?" I reply, By the use of these
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: "The same," continued Desroches.
"It was the only mistake Maxime ever made in his life. But what would
you have, no vice is absolutely perfect?" put in Bixiou.
"Maxime had still to learn what sort of a life a man may be led into
by a girl of eighteen when she is minded to take a header from her
honest garret into a sumptuous carriage; it is a lesson that all
statesmen should take to heart. At this time, de Marsay had just been
employing his friend, our friend de Trailles, in the high comedy of
politics. Maxime had looked high for his conquests; he had no
experience of untitled women; and at fifty years he felt that he had a
right to take a bite of the so-called wild fruit, much as a sportsman
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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 Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: French Republic must never have lost his status as a French citizen."
The first President of the French Republic, L. N. Bonaparte, had not
only lost his status as a French citizen, had not only been an English
special constable, but was even a naturalized Swiss citizen.
In the previous chapter I have explained the meaning of the election of
December 10. I shall not here return to it. Suffice it here to say
that it was a reaction of the farmers' class, who had been expected to
pay the costs of the February revolution, against the other classes of
the nation: it was a reaction of the country against the city. It met
with great favor among the soldiers, to whom the republicans of the
"National" had brought neither fame nor funds; among the great
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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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: lectures with profit to themselves had been prevented
by the war or by pre-revolution conditions from acquiring
the sort of knowledge that could be tested by examination.
It was also believed that no one would willingly listen to
lectures that were of no use to him. They hoped to get as
many working men into the universities as possible. Since
the passing of that decree the number of students at
Moscow University, for example, has more than doubled.
It is interesting to notice that of the new students a greater
number are studying in the faculties of science and history
and philosophy than in those of medicine or law. Schools
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