| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: All the same, the Law accomplishes this much, that it will outwardly at
least and to a certain extent repress vice and crime.
But the Law is also a spiritual prison, a veritable hell. When the Law
begins to threaten a person with death and the eternal wrath of God, a
man just cannot find any comfort at all. He cannot shake off at will the
nightmare of terror which the Law stirs up in his conscience. Of this terror
of the Law the Psalms furnish many glimpses.
The Law is a civil and a spiritual prison. And such it should be. For that
the Law is intended. Only the confinement in the prison of the Law must
not be unduly prolonged. It must come to an end. The freedom of faith
must succeed the imprisonment of the Law.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: they pretended to give her a lamb, and yet, as soon as it was
fat, sold it to a butcher. For my own part, I may truly affirm,
that I was less concerned than my nurse. I had a strong hope,
which never left me, that I should one day recover my liberty:
and as to the ignominy of being carried about for a monster, I
considered myself to be a perfect stranger in the country, and
that such a misfortune could never be charged upon me as a
reproach, if ever I should return to England, since the king of
Great Britain himself, in my condition, must have undergone the
same distress.
My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a
Gulliver's Travels |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: doubted that the Dove was sent out of the ark by Noah, to give him
notice of land, when to him all appeared to be sea; and the Dove proved
a faithful and comfortable messenger. And for the sacrifices of the law,
a pair of Turtle-doves, or young Pigeons, were as well accepted as
costly Bulls and Rams; and when God would feed the Prophet Elijah,
after a kind of miraculous manner, he did it by Ravens, who brought
him meat morning and evening. Lastly, the Holy Ghost, when he
descended visibly upon our Saviour, did it by assuming the shape of a
Dove. And, to conclude this part of my discourse, pray remember these
wonders were done by birds of air, the element in which they, and I,
take so much pleasure.
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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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: Denisart's fair lady,' as he called her. And here I must make a
somewhat important observation.
"The reading-room had been paid for half in cash, half in bills signed
by the said Mlle. Chocardelle. The /quart d'heure de Rabelais/
arrived; the Count had no money. So the first bill of three thousand
francs was met by the amiable coach-builder; that old scoundrel
Denisart having recommended him to secure himself with a mortgage on
the reading-room.
" 'For my own part,' said Denisart, 'I have seen pretty doings from
pretty women. So in all cases, even when I have lost my head, I am
always on my guard with a woman. There is this creature, for instance;
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