| 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: condemned--then, being truly humbled and brought to nothing in
his own eyes, he finds in himself no resource for justification
and salvation.
Then comes in that other part of Scripture, the promises of God,
which declare the glory of God, and say, "If you wish to fulfil
the law, and, as the law requires, not to covet, lo! believe in
Christ, in whom are promised to you grace, justification, peace,
and liberty." All these things you shall have, if you believe,
and shall be without them if you do not believe. For what is
impossible for you by all the works of the law, which are many
and yet useless, you shall fulfil in an easy and summary way
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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 Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: have spent half the night with him. At three o'clock in the
morning, not sleeping, remembering moreover how indispensable he
was to Lady Jane, I stole down to the library with a candle. There
wasn't, so far as I could discover, a line of his writing in the
house.
CHAPTER IV.
RETURNING to town I feverishly collected them all; I picked out
each in its order and held it up to the light. This gave me a
maddening month, in the course of which several things took place.
One of these, the last, I may as well immediately mention, was that
I acted on Vereker's advice: I renounced my ridiculous attempt. I
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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 The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: mark the bustling scene below. The sudden din compelled
attention. I looked down upon the writhing traffic, the
glistening roadway, the pavements crowded with hurrying,jostling
forms. An over-lighted public house made the cheap shops seem
ill-lit, poorer still. Its dirty splendour dominated everything:
even the tall trams took on a lesser light. The lumbering roar
of wheels, the insistent clamour of an obstructed tram, the
hoarse shouts of hawkers crying their wares- all this rose up
above the rumble of the slow-moving train. I was glad when we
had left the spot behind. It would not do after the
country-side. It occurred to me that, but a little space back-
The Brother of Daphne |
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 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: was a light moving behind the screen, and he heard her steps.
"What is it? ...what is it?" he said, half-asleep. "Kitty!
What is it?"
"Nothing," she said, coming from behind the screen with a candle
in her hand. "I felt unwell," she said, smiling a particularly
sweet and meaning smile.
"What? has it begun?" he said in terror. "We ought to send, . ."
and hurriedly he reached after his clothes.
"No, no," she said, smiling and holding his hand. "It's sure to
be nothing. I was rather unwell, only a little. It's all over
now."
Anna Karenina |
