| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: roadside."
"My cherished one, I have been annoying you purposely because you
show by your anger that you have not ceased to care for me. I am
in the wrong, as I usually am, and it is all my fault. Agatha
knows nothing about our marriage."
"I do not blame you so much," said Henrietta, suffering him to
place her head on his shoulder; "but I will never speak to Agatha
again. She has behaved shamefully to me, and I will tell her so."
"No doubt she will opine that it is all your fault, dearest, and
that I have behaved admirably. Between you I shall stand
exonerated. And now, since it is too cold for walking, since it
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: Doctor Staupitz said to me. "I like it well," he said, "that the doctrine
which you proclaim gives glory to God alone and none to man. For never can
too much glory, goodness, and mercy be ascribed unto God." These words of
the worthy Doctor comforted and confirmed me. The Gospel is true because
it deprives men of all glory, wisdom, and righteousness and turns over all
honor to the Creator alone. It is safer to attribute too much glory unto God
than unto man.
You may argue that the Church and the fathers are holy. Yet the Church is
compelled to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses," I am not to be believed, nor
is the Church to be believed, or the fathers, or the apostles, or an angel
from heaven, if they teach anything contrary to the Word of God. Let the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: in all. The carpenter, seizing the hook of the cargo-chain,
flung himself on the top of them. A very satisfactory petty
officer, too, but he stuttered. Have you ever heard a
light-yellow, lean, sad, earnest Chinaman stutter in
Pidgin-English? It's very weird, indeed. He made the
eighteenth. I could not see the pony at all; but from the
swaying and heaving of that heap of men I knew that there was
something alive inside.
From the wharf Almayer hailed, in quavering tones:
"Oh, I say!"
Where he stood he could not see what was going on on deck,
A Personal Record |
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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: This Jew was the well-known Yankel. He was there as revenue-farmer and
tavern-keeper. He had gradually got nearly all the neighbouring
noblemen and gentlemen into his hands, had slowly sucked away most of
their money, and had strongly impressed his presence on that locality.
For a distance of three miles in all directions, not a single farm
remained in a proper state. All were falling in ruins; all had been
drunk away, and poverty and rags alone remained. The whole
neighbourhood was depopulated, as if after a fire or an epidemic; and
if Yankel had lived there ten years, he would probably have
depopulated the Waiwode's whole domains.
Taras entered the room. The Jew was praying, enveloped in his dirty
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
