| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: as quickly as I can. And you'll sit beside me, and
we'll look, not at visions, but at realities."
"I don't know what you mean by realities. The only
reality to me is this."
She met the words with a long silence, during which
the carriage rolled down an obscure side-street and
then turned into the searching illumination of Fifth
Avenue.
"Is it your idea, then, that I should live with you as
your mistress--since I can't be your wife?" she asked.
The crudeness of the question startled him: the word
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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: traditions have been changed in process of time, as the Canons
themselves show. But if it be impossible to obtain a
mitigation of such observances as cannot be kept without sin,
we are bound to follow the apostolic rule, Acts 5, 29, which
commands us to obey God rather than men.
Peter, 1 Pet. 5, 3, forbids bishops to be lords, and to rule
over the churches. It is not our design now to wrest the
government from the bishops, but this one thing is asked,
namely, that they allow the Gospel to be purely taught, and
that they relax some few observances which cannot be kept
without sin. But if they make no concession, it is for them to
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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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: anatomy as to all other sciences. Especially did the improvements
in painting and sculpture stir men up to a closer study of the human
frame. Leonardo da Vinci wrote a treatise on muscular anatomy. The
artist and the sculptor often worked together, and realised that
sketch of Michael Angelo's in which he himself is assisting
Fallopius, Vesalius's famous pupil, to dissect. Vesalius soon found
that his thirst for facts could not be slaked by the theories of the
Middle Age; so in 1530 he went off to Montpellier, where Francis I.
had just founded a medical school, and where the ancient laws of the
city allowed the faculty each year the body of a criminal. From
thence, after becoming the fellow-pupil and the friend of Rondelet,
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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 The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: patriarchal beard.
"How you deceived me!" she laughed, when the greetings and
introductions were over.
"I came to America early," he smiled back at her, "and thought
I'd try a little incognito at the Pass. I was not well, you see.
It has been of great benefit to me."
"I kept my promise," she said in a lower tone.
"Thank you; that also has helped me."
Annette's teacher began to note a wonderful improvement in his
pupil's voice. Never did a girl study so hard or practise so
faithfully. It was truly wonderful. Now and then Annette would
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
