| 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: Something widely different will be necessary for the
justification and liberty of the soul, since the things I have
spoken of can be done by any impious person, and only hypocrites
are produced by devotion to these things. On the other hand, it
will not at all injure the soul that the body should be clothed
in profane raiment, should dwell in profane places, should eat
and drink in the ordinary fashion, should not pray aloud, and
should leave undone all the things above mentioned, which may be
done by hypocrites.
And, to cast everything aside, even speculation, meditations, and
whatever things can be performed by the exertions of the soul
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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 Sportsman by Xenophon: himself will take the hounds and sally forth to rouse the game.[19]
Then with prayer and promise to Apollo and to Artemis, our Lady of the
Chase,[20] to share with them the produce of spoil, he lets slip a
single hound, the cunningest at scenting of the pack. [If it be
winter, the hour will be sunrise, or if summer, before day-dawn, and
in the other seasons at some hour midway.] As soon as the hound has
unravelled the true line[21] he will let slip another; and then, if
these carry on the line, at rapid intervals he will slip the others
one by one; and himself follow, without too great hurry,[22]
addressing each of the dogs by name every now and then, but not too
frequently, for fear of over-exciting them before the proper moment.
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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 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: Babbitt could have entered his office from the street, as customers did, but
it made him feel an insider to go through the corridor of the building and
enter by the back door. Thus he was greeted by the villagers.
The little unknown people who inhabited the Reeves Building
corridors--elevator-runners, starter, engineers, superintendent, and the
doubtful-looking lame man who conducted the news and cigar stand--were in no
way city-dwellers. They were rustics, living in a constricted valley,
interested only in one another and in The Building. Their Main Street was the
entrance hall, with its stone floor, severe marble ceiling, and the inner
windows of the shops. The liveliest place on the street was the Reeves
Building Barber Shop, but this was also Babbitt's one embarrassment. Himself,
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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 Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: field of the dead; and as we look upon it, a brave
influence comes to us from the land of those who have won
their discharge and, in another phrase of Patrick
Walker's, got 'cleanly off the stage.'
CHAPTER VI.
NEW TOWN - TOWN AND COUNTRY.
IT is as much a matter of course to decry the New
Town as to exalt the Old; and the most celebrated
authorities have picked out this quarter as the very
emblem of what is condemnable in architecture. Much may
be said, much indeed has been said, upon the text; but to
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