| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: All my joys disappear;
The girls of the country
Have lured him from here.
To change dress and figure,
Was needful I found,
My bodice is longer,
My petticoat round.
My hat now is yellow.
My bodice like snow;
The clover to sickle
With others I go.
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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 Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "I'd just like to look at them first, if you'll let me."
"I'd be glad to get rid of them. But I won't go upstairs, I'm
afraid there."
"Well, I'll get the things for you if you want me to," offered
George and turned to leave the room. The door had scarcely closed
behind him when a change came over the peddler. His old head rose
from its drooping position, his bowed figure started up with
youthful elasticity.
"Are you really fond of him?" he asked of the astonished Nanette,
who stepped back a pace, stammering in answer: "Yes. Why do you
ask? and who are you?"
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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 My Antonia by Willa Cather: he began to finger out passages from things Miss Nellie had been practising,
passages that were already his, that lay under the bone of his pinched,
conical little skull, definite as animal desires.
The door opened; Miss Nellie and her music-master stood
behind it, but blind Samson, who was so sensitive to presences,
did not know they were there. He was feeling out the pattern
that lay all ready-made on the big and little keys.
When he paused for a moment, because the sound was wrong
and he wanted another, Miss Nellie spoke softly.
He whirled about in a spasm of terror, leaped forward in the dark,
struck his head on the open window, and fell screaming and
My Antonia |
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: superabundantly rich [and liberal] in His grace [and
goodness]. First, through the spoken Word by which the
forgiveness of sins is preached [He commands to be preached]
in the whole world; which is the peculiar office of the
Gospel. Secondly, through Baptism. Thirdly, through the holy
Sacrament of the Altar. Fourthly, through the power of the
keys, and also through the mutual conversation and consolation
of brethren, Matt. 18, 20: Where two or three are gathered
together, etc.
V. Of Baptism.
Baptism is nothing else than the Word of God in the water,
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