| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: dear.
Very true, he replied: at any rate not if our present view holds good.
But, oh! will you tell me, I said, whether if evil were to perish, we
should hunger any more, or thirst any more, or have any similar desire? Or
may we suppose that hunger will remain while men and animals remain, but
not so as to be hurtful? And the same of thirst and the other desires,--
that they will remain, but will not be evil because evil has perished? Or
rather shall I say, that to ask what either will be then or will not be is
ridiculous, for who knows? This we do know, that in our present condition
hunger may injure us, and may also benefit us:--Is not that true?
Yes.
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: he said that if people were in danger, it was his duty to help
them; and that he must see this strange cloud, and note down the
different shapes into which it changed. But the hot ashes fell
faster and faster; the sea ebbed out suddenly, and left them
nearly dry, and Pliny turned away to a place called Stabiae, to
the house of his friend Pomponianus, who was just going to escape
in a boat. Brave Pliny told him not to be afraid, ordered his
bath like a true Roman gentleman, and then went into dinner with a
cheerful face. Flames came down from the mountain, nearer and
nearer as the night drew on; but Pliny persuaded his friend that
they were only fires in some villages from which the peasants had
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: strangest of all spectacles opened out before the provincial poet's
eyes. The height of the roof, the slenderness of the props, the
ladders hung with Argand lamps, the atrocious ugliness of scenery
beheld at close quarters, the thick paint on the actors' faces, and
their outlandish costumes, made of such coarse materials, the stage
carpenters in greasy jackets, the firemen, the stage manager strutting
about with his hat on his head, the supernumeraries sitting among the
hanging back-scenes, the ropes and pulleys, the heterogeneous
collection of absurdities, shabby, dirty, hideous, and gaudy, was
something so altogether different from the stage seen over the
footlights, that Lucien's astonishment knew no bounds. The curtain was
|
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 treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: observed in all Christendom, and has added to it a glorious,
rich, great testament, in which no interest, money or temporal
possessions are bequeathed and distributed, but the forgiveness
of all sins, grace and mercy unto eternal life, that all who come
to this memorial shall have the same testament; and then He died,
whereby this testament has become permanent and irrevocable. In
proof and evidence of which, instead of letter and seal, He has
left with us His own Body and Blood under the bread and wine.
Here there is need that a man practise the first works of this
Commandment right well, that he doubt not that what Christ has
said is true, and consider the testament sure, so that he make
|
