| 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: before it: to serve God with joy and for nought in free love.
But in doing this he comes into collision with that contrary will
in his own flesh, which is striving to serve the world and to
seek its own gratification. This the spirit of faith cannot and
will not bear, but applies itself with cheerfulness and zeal to
keep it down and restrain it, as Paul says, "I delight in the law
of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin" (Rom. vii. 22, 23), and again, "I keep under
my body, and bring it unto subjection, lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: go. You are shivering! Don't, dear, don't. See, you
have Norah, and Max,and me to help you. We will put him
on his feet. Physically he is not what he should be. I can
do much for him."
"You!" I cried, and the humor of it was too exquisite
for laughter.
"For that I gave up Vienna," said Von Gerhard,
simply. "You, too, must do your share."
"My share! I have done my share. He was in the
gutter, and he was dragging me with him. When his
insanity came upon him I thanked God for it, and
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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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: The habit of seeing always the same face leads insensibly to our
reading there the qualities of the soul, and at last effaces all its
defects.
"At the pace at which that man goes, our girls will soon have to go on
their knees to a suitor!" said Monsieur Guillaume to himself, as he
read the first decree by which Napoleon drew in advance on the
conscript classes.
From that day the old merchant, grieved at seeing his eldest daughter
fade, remembered how he had married Mademoiselle Chevrel under much
the same circumstances as those of Joseph Lebas and Virginie. A good
bit of business, to marry off his daughter, and discharge a sacred
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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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: "That nothing may be lacking to this composition," he went on, "the
great artist has generously added the only /buffo/ duet permissible
for a devil: that in which he tempts the unhappy troubadour. The
composer has set jocosity side by side with horror--a jocosity in
which he mocks at the only realism he had allowed himself amid the
sublime imaginings of his work--the pure calm love of Alice and
Raimbaut; and their life is overshadowed by the forecast of evil.
"None but a lofty soul can feel the noble style of these /buffo/ airs;
they have neither the superabundant frivolity of Italian music nor the
vulgar accent of French commonplace; rather have they the majesty of
Olympus. There is the bitter laughter of a divine being mocking the
Gambara |
