| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: his feet were encased in the kind of buskins worn by consuls. A guard
of lictors surrounded him. Against the wall they placed their twelve
fasces--a bundle of sticks with an axe in the centre. And the populace
trembled before the insignia of Roman majesty.
The gorgeous litter, borne by eight men, came to a halt. From it
descended a youth. He wore many pearls upon his fingers, but he had a
protruding abdomen and his face was covered with pimples. A cup of
aromatic wine was offered to him. He drank it, and asked for a second
draught.
The tetrarch had fallen upon his knees before the proconsul, saying
that he was grieved beyond words not to have known sooner of the
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: I answered by two tears wrung from me by that strange tone of
hers. She leaned against a tree with a faint, sharp cry.
"Madame, here comes your husband!"
"Have I a husband?" and with those words she fled away out of
sight.
"Well," cried the Count, "dinner is growing cold.--Come,
monsieur."
Thereupon I followed the master of the house into the dining-
room. Dinner was served with all the luxury which we have learned
to expect in Paris. There were five covers laid, three for the
Count and Countess and their little daughter; my own, which
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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 Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: In the great and busy city where the East and West are met,
All the little letters did the English printer set;
While you thought of nothing, and were still too young to play,
Foreign people thought of you in places far away.
Ay, and when you slept, a baby, over all the English lands
Other little children took the volume in their hands;
Other children questioned, in their homes across the seas:
Who was little Louis, won't you tell us, mother, please?
2
Now that you have spelt your lesson, lay it down and go and play,
Seeking shells and seaweed on the sands of Monterey,
A Child's Garden of Verses |
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 Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: it; and such as is the word, such is the soul made by it, just as
iron exposed to fire glows like fire, on account of its union
with the fire. It is clear then that to a Christian man his faith
suffices for everything, and that he has no need of works for
justification. But if he has no need of works, neither has he
need of the law; and if he has no need of the law, he is
certainly free from the law, and the saying is true, "The law is
not made for a righteous man" (1 Tim. i. 9). This is that
Christian liberty, our faith, the effect of which is, not that we
should be careless or lead a bad life, but that no one should
need the law or works for justification and salvation.
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