| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and
do not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own
need, free it for pure love's sake?"
85. Again: -- "Why are the penitential canons long since in
actual fact and through disuse abrogated and dead, now
satisfied by the granting of indulgences, as though they were
still alive and in force?"
86. Again: -- "Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day
greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one
church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the
money of poor believers?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: will buy, gold down, and give three cents. It's all found money
to him, the way it is, whatever he pays for it. And that's what
come of going back on the pilot."
"Excuse me one moment, Captain Dobbs. I wish to speak with
my mate," said the captain, whose face had begun to shine and
his eyes to sparkle.
"Please yourself," replied the pilot. "You couldn't think of
offering a man a nip, could you? just to brace him up. This
kind of thing looks damned inhospitable, and gives a schooner
a bad name."
"I'll talk about that after the anchor's down," returned Wicks,
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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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: education,--and in six weeks he cashiered five of them;--I know very well,
continued my father, that Commodus's mother was in love with a gladiator at
the time of her conception, which accounts for a great many of Commodus's
cruelties when he became emperor;--but still I am of opinion, that those
five whom Antoninus dismissed, did Commodus's temper, in that short time,
more hurt than the other nine were able to rectify all their lives long.
Now as I consider the person who is to be about my son, as the mirror in
which he is to view himself from morning to night, by which he is to adjust
his looks, his carriage, and perhaps the inmost sentiments of his heart;--I
would have one, Yorick, if possible, polished at all points, fit for my
child to look into.--This is very good sense, quoth my uncle Toby to
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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 The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: from his mind.
From this day of his life onward for a considerable time,
Winterborne, though not absolutely out of his house as yet,
retired into the background of human life and action thereabout--a
feat not particularly difficult of performance anywhere when the
doer has the assistance of a lost prestige. Grace, thinking that
Winterborne saw her write, made no further sign, and the frail
bark of fidelity that she had thus timidly launched was stranded
and lost.
CHAPTER XVI.
Dr. Fitzpiers lived on the slope of the hill, in a house of much
The Woodlanders |
