| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: cough. Any unusually severe exertion precipitated spells of
coughing, during which he was almost like a man in a fit. The
blood congested in his eyes till they bulged, while the tears ran
down his cheeks. A whiff of the smoke from frying bacon would
start him off for a half-hour's paroxysm, and he kept carefully
to windward when Daylight was cooking.
They plodded days upon days and without end over the soft,
unpacked snow. It was hard, monotonous work, with none of the
joy and blood-stir that went with flying over hard surface. Now
one man to the fore in the snowshoes, and now the other, it was a
case of stubborn, unmitigated plod. A yard of powdery snow had
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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: sternly, on pain of His everlasting displeasure and wrath,
commanded us to pray, to trust and to receive. If it has not been
too much for that high Majesty so solemnly and highly to obligate
His unworthy worms to pray, to trust, and to receive from Him,
how shall it be too much for me to take such command upon myself
with all joy, however worthy or unworthy I may be?" Thus we must
drive out the devil's suggestion with God's command. Thus will
he cease, and in no other way whatever.
IX. But what are the things which we must bring before Almighty
God in prayer and lamentation, to exercise faith thereby? Answer:
First, every man's own besetting need and trouble, of which David
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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 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: haunted us for years.
But in December, 1848, a plan suggested itself
that proved quite successful, and in eight days
after it was first thought of we were free from the
horrible trammels of slavery, rejoicing and praising
God in the glorious sunshine of liberty.
My wife's first master was her father, and her
mother his slave, and the latter is still the slave of
his widow.
Notwithstanding my wife being of African ex-
traction on her mother's side, she is almost white--
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
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 Art of War by Sun Tzu: their tails. When night came on, he lighted the ends of the
rushes, and drove the oxen through a number of holes which he had
pierced in the walls, backing them up with a force of 5000 picked
warriors. The animals, maddened with pain, dashed furiously
into the enemy's camp where they caused the utmost confusion and
dismay; for their tails acted as torches, showing up the hideous
pattern on their bodies, and the weapons on their horns killed or
wounded any with whom they came into contact. In the meantime,
the band of 5000 had crept up with gags in their mouths, and now
threw themselves on the enemy. At the same moment a frightful
din arose in the city itself, all those that remained behind
The Art of War |
