| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: but her writing seemed to spring out at him as he put his key in
the door--.
He stood up and strolled into the other room. Hollingsworth,
lounging away from the window, had joined himself to a languidly
convivial group of men to whom, in phrases as halting as though
they struggled to define an ultimate idea, he was expounding the
cursed nuisance of living in a hole with such a damned climate
that one had to get out of it by February, with the contingent
difficulty of there being no place to take one's yacht to in
winter but that other played-out hole, the Riviera. From the
outskirts of this group Glennard wandered to another, where a
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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: they." (Acts l5: 10, 11.) And Paul writes: "And did all drink the spiritual
drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that
Rock was Christ." (I Cor. 10 :4.) And Christ Himself declared: "Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad." (John 8:56.) The
faith of the fathers was directed at the Christ who was to come, while ours
rests in the Christ who has come. Time does not change the object of true
faith, or the Holy Spirit. There has always been and always will be one mind,
one impression, one faith concerning Christ among true believers whether they
live in times past, now, or in times to come. We too believe in the Christ to
come as the fathers did in the Old Testament, for we look for Christ to come
again on the last day to judge the quick and the dead.
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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 The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Ring in ring, united there is found.
From the shore of Senderud ascendeth,
Up to Darnawend its pinions bendeth,
As He dawns, with joy to greet His light,
You with endless blessings to requite.
1819.*
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XII. CHULD NAME.
BOOK OF PARADISE.
THE PRIVILEGED MEN.
AFTER THE BATTLE OF BADE, BENEATH THE CANOPY OF HEAVEN.
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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 Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: Bumping along he recalled to his mind the various girls with whom
he had gone to school. As if the sight of the building, itself,
would sharpen his memory, he turned north and drove past it. Like
its south, east and west counterparts, it was a solid two-story
brick affair. In time it would be demolished to make way for what
would be known as the "Emerson School," in which, to be worthy of
this high title, the huge stoves would be supplanted with
hot-water pipes, oil lamps with soft, indirect lighting, and
unsightly out-buildings with modern plumbing. The South building
would become the "Whittier School," the East, the "Longfellow,"
and the West, not to be neglected by culture's invasion, the
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