| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: dishonour on the house.
You belong, sir, to a sect - I believe my sect, and that in which
my ancestors laboured - which has enjoyed, and partly failed to
utilise, and exceptional advantage in the islands of Hawaii. The
first missionaries came; they found the land already self-purged of
its old and bloody faith; they were embraced, almost on their
arrival, with enthusiasm; what troubles they supported came far
more from whites than from Hawaiins; and to these last they stood
(in a rough figure) in the shoes of God. This is not the place to
enter into the degree or causes of their failure, such as it is.
One element alone is pertinent, and must here be plainly dealt
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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 $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: C. Sixteen years ago.
H. What a basis to judge a book upon! As first you said you knew him,
and not you don't know whether you did or not.
C. Oh yes, I know him; anyway, I think I thought I did; I'm perfectly
certain of it.
H. What makes you think you thought you knew him?
C. Why, she says I did, herself.
H. SHE says so!
C. Yes, she does, and I DID know him, too, though I don't remember
it now.
H. Come--how can you know it when you don't remember it.
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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 Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: Such is the nature of living things.
This, however, is the third thing which I heard--namely, that commanding is
more difficult than obeying. And not only because the commander beareth
the burden of all obeyers, and because this burden readily crusheth him:--
An attempt and a risk seemed all commanding unto me; and whenever it
commandeth, the living thing risketh itself thereby.
Yea, even when it commandeth itself, then also must it atone for its
commanding. Of its own law must it become the judge and avenger and
victim.
How doth this happen! so did I ask myself. What persuadeth the living
thing to obey, and command, and even be obedient in commanding?
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
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: that follows the remission of sins. This gift daily cleanses
and sweeps out the remaining sins, and works so as to render
man truly pure and holy.
The Pope, the theologians, the jurists, and every other man
know nothing of this [from their own reason], but it is a
doctrine from heaven, revealed through the Gospel, and must
suffer to be called heresy by the godless saints [or
hypocrites].
On the other hand, if certain sectarists would arise, some of
whom are perhaps already extant, and in the time of the
insurrection [of the peasants] came to my own view, holding
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