| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: judgments of men and to persevere in this vehement zeal,
according to the example of Christ, who, in His zeal, calls His
adversaries a generation of vipers, blind, hypocrites, and
children of the devil. Paul, too, charges the sorcerer with being
a child of the devil, full of all subtlety and all malice; and
defames certain persons as evil workers, dogs, and deceivers. In
the opinion of those delicate-eared persons, nothing could be
more bitter or intemperate than Paul's language. What can be more
bitter than the words of the prophets? The ears of our generation
have been made so delicate by the senseless multitude of
flatterers that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours is
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: "We thought so, too, monsieur. As our house is carried on very
regularly, and we make out our bills every week, at the end of
eight days we presented our account; but it appeared we had
chosen an unlucky moment, for at the first word on the subject,
he sent us to all the devils. It is true he had been playing the
day before."
"Playing the day before! And with whom?"
"Lord, who can say, monsieur? With some gentleman who was
traveling this way, to whom he proposed a game of LANSQUENET."
"That's it, then, and the foolish fellow lost all he had?"
"Even to his horse, monsieur; for when the gentleman was about to
The Three Musketeers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: completeness. But he was not certain of the view his department
would take. A department is to those it employs a complex
personality with ideas and even fads of its own. It depends on the
loyal devotion of its servants, and the devoted loyalty of trusted
servants is associated with a certain amount of affectionate
contempt, which keeps it sweet, as it were. By a benevolent
provision of Nature no man is a hero to his valet, or else the
heroes would have to brush their own clothes. Likewise no
department appears perfectly wise to the intimacy of its workers.
A department does not know so much as some of its servants. Being
a dispassionate organism, it can never be perfectly informed. It
The Secret Agent |
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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: is the first Gutenberg release, pagination is retained between angle
brackets <> to facilitate proofreading and correction for subsequent
editions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1900
First Edition, September, 1898. Reprinted November, 1898:
December, 1898; March, May, and July, 1899 (twice); August
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
