| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: The German snatched it from her. He unlocked the door. Conrad
stumbled out, swearing.
"Where is he? Have you got him?"
"We have seen no one," said the German sharply. His face paled.
"Who do you mean?"
Conrad gave vent to another oath.
"He's got away."
"Impossible. He would have passed us."
At that moment, with an ecstatic smile Tommy pulled the string. A
crash of crockery came from the attic above. In a trice the men
were pushing each other up the rickety ladder and had disappeared
Secret Adversary |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: honor, but let God's love and honor and the desire of eternal
blessings be quenched in them?
O how perilous it is to be a father or a mother, where flesh and
blood are supreme! For, truly, the knowledge and fulfilment of
the first three and the last six Commandments depends altogether
upon this Commandment; since parents are commanded to teach them
to their children, as Psalm lxxviii. says, "How strictly has He
commanded our fathers, that they should make known God's
Commandments to their children, that the generation to come might
know them and declare them to their children's children." This
also is the reason why God bids us honor our parents, that is,
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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 King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: his brother, until he lifted his flask to his lips to drink. Then
he saw the fair child lying near him on the rocks, and it cried to
him and moaned for water. "Water, indeed," said Schwartz; "I
haven't half enough for myself," and passed on. And as he went he
thought the sunbeams grew more dim, and he saw a low bank of black
cloud rising out of the west; and when he had climbed for another
hour, the thirst overcame him again and he would have drunk. Then
he saw the old man lying before him on the path, and heard him cry
out for water. "Water, indeed," said Schwartz; "I haven't half
enough for myself," and on he went. Then again the light seemed to
fade from before his eyes, and he looked up, and, behold, a mist, of
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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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: and our preachers; omitting, however, all comedies and
spectacular display [deceptions, absurdities, and appearances]
of unchristian [heathenish] parade and pomp. But because they
neither are, nor wish to be, true bishops, but worldly lords
and princes, who will neither preach, nor teach, nor baptize,
nor administer the Lord's Supper, nor perform any work or
office of the Church, and, moreover, persecute and condemn
those who discharge these functions, having been called to do
so, the Church ought not on their account to remain without
ministers [to be forsaken by or deprived of ministers].
Therefore, as the ancient examples of the Church and the
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