| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: of the Neckar, hence the water-supply was inexhaustible.
But there were some who believed it had never been a well
at all, and was never deeper than it is now--eighty feet;
that at that depth a subterranean passage branched from it
and descended gradually to a remote place in the valley,
where it opened into somebody's cellar or other hidden recess,
and that the secret of this locality is now lost.
Those who hold this belief say that herein lies the
explanation that Dilsberg, besieged by Tilly and many
a soldier before him, was never taken: after the longest
and closest sieges the besiegers were astonished to
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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 Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake,
sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from
terrors. Then good works are bound to follow, which are the fruits
of repentance.
They condemn the Anabaptists, who deny that those once justified
can lose the Holy Ghost. Also those who contend that some may
attain to such perfection in this life that they cannot sin.
The Novatians also are condemned, who would not absolve such as had
fallen after Baptism, though they returned to repentance.
They also are rejected who do not teach that remission of sins comes
through faith but command us to merit grace through satisfactions of
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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 Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: satisfactionis sacramentalis ab homine constitutas.
10. [35] Non christiana predicant, qui docent, quod redempturis
animas vel confessionalia non sit necessaria contritio.
11. [36] Quilibet christianus vere compunctus habet remissionem
plenariam a pena et culpa etiam sine literis veniarum sibi
debitam.
12. [37] Quilibet versus christianus, sive vivus sive mortuus,
habet participationem omnium bonorum Christi et Ecclesie etiam
sine literis veniarum a deo sibi datam.
13. [38] Remissio tamen et participatio Pape nullo modo est
contemnenda, quia (ut dixi) est declaratio remissionis divine.
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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 Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: been hitherto kept up, and to "rummage" (as was the word in those
days) their noble prize. What they found, of gold and silver,
jewels, and merchandise, will interest no readers. Suffice it to
say, that there was enough there, with the other treasure, to make
Amyas rich for life, after all claims of Cary's and the crew, not
forgetting Mr. Salterne's third, as owner of the ship, had been
paid off. But in the captain's cabin were found two chests, one
full of gorgeous Mexican feather dresses, and the other of Spanish
and East Indian finery, which, having come by way of Havana and
Cartagena, was going on, it seemed, to some senora or other at the
Caracas. Which two chests were, at Cary's proposal, voted amid the
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