| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: faith alone makes one righteous. There was Ambrose, Augustine and
many others who said it before me. And if one is to read and
understand St. Paul, the same thing must be said and not anything
else. His words, as well, are blunt - "no works" - none at all!
If it is not works, it must be faith alone. Oh what a marvelous,
constructive and inoffensive teaching that would be, to be taught
that one can be saved by works as well as by faith. That would be
like saying that it is not Christ's death alone that takes away
our sin but that our works have something to do with it. Now that
would be a fine way of honoring Christ's death, saying that it is
helped by our works, and that whatever it does our works can also
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: heavy iron and had soon to give over his wrath.
It is useless attacking the insensible.
The Man and the Wood
A Man came into a Wood one day with an axe in his hand, and
begged all the Trees to give him a small branch which he wanted
for a particular purpose. The Trees were good-natured and gave
him one of their branches. What did the Man do but fix it into
the axe head, and soon set to work cutting down tree after tree.
Then the Trees saw how foolish they had been in giving their enemy
the means of destroying themselves.
The Dog and the Wolf
Aesop's Fables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: feet upon the uncarpeted boards in the room beneath
them. Frozen to silent rigidity, the five sat straining ev-
ery faculty to catch the minutest sound from the black
void where the dead man lay, and as they listened there
came up to them, mingled with the inexplicable foot-
steps, the hollow reverberation from the dank cellar--
the hideous dragging of the chain behind the nameless
horror which had haunted them through the intermin-
able eons of the ghastly night.
Up, up, up it came toward the first floor. The patter-
ing of the feet ceased. The clanking rose until the five
The Oakdale Affair |
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 Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: rooms, on the wharves, and in private houses, where praises of a man
so irreproachable, honorable, and beneficent filled every mouth,
Latournelle and Dumay, silent and active as ants, sold land, turned
property into money, paid the debts, and settled up everything.
Vilquin showed a good deal of generosity in purchasing the villa, the
town-house, and a farm; and Latournelle made the most of his
liberality by getting a good price out of him. Society wished to show
civilities to Madame and Mademoiselle Mignon; but they had already
obeyed the father's last wishes and taken refuge in the Chalet, where
they went on the very morning of his departure, the exact hour of
which had been concealed from them. Not to be shaken in his resolution
Modeste Mignon |
