| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: unaided of God, turns itself from God, as Christ says John 8,
44: When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.
Article XX: Of Good Works.
Our teachers are falsely accused of forbidding good Works. For
their published writings on the Ten Commandments, and others
of like import, bear witness that they have taught to good
purpose concerning all estates and duties of life, as to what
estates of life and what works in every calling be pleasing to
God. Concerning these things preachers heretofore taught but
little, and urged only childish and needless works, as
particular holy-days, particular fasts, brotherhoods,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: heavily-respectable group of early Victorian buildings beyond.
Some well-dressed men were standing talking in one of
the porches. The stiff yellowish-stucco pilasters of
this entrance, and the tall uniformed figure of the porter
in the shadow, came into the picture as he observed it;
they gave forth a suggestion of satisfied smugness--of
orderly but altogether unillumined routine. Nothing could
be more commonplace to the eye.
Yet to his imagination, eighteen months before,
what mysterious marvels of power had lurked hidden
behind those conventional portals! Within those doors,
The Market-Place |
