| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: their teeth. One of these I capsized, but was gone on the wings
of the wind before he could even vociferate an oath.
After this picture of an inclement night, behold us seated by a
great blazing fire, which looked so comfortable and delicious
that I felt inclined to lie down and roll among the hot coals.
The usual furniture of a lawyer's office was around us,--rows of
volumes in sheepskin, and a multitude of writs, summonses, and
other legal papers, scattered over the desks and tables. But
there were certain objects which seemed to intimate that we had
little dread of the intrusion of clients, or of the learned
counsellor himself, who, indeed, was attending court in a distant
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: some it was a fleeting flash, a gleam soon gone, like the hope
and the name and the happiness that had been and was now no
more. Often Gale thought of those hundreds of desert travelers,
prospectors, wanderers who had ventured down the Camino del
Diablo, never to be heard of again. Belding had told him of that
most terrible of all desert trails--a trail of shifting sands. Lash
had traversed it, and brought back stories of buried waterholes,
of bones bleaching white in the sun, of gold mines as lost as were
the prospectors who had sought them, of the merciless Yaqui and
his hatred for the Mexican. Gale thought of this trail and the men
who had camped along it. For many there had been one night, one
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: thought it possible she was offended. "With your mother,"
he answered very respectfully.
But it seemed that both his audacity and his respect were lost
upon Miss Daisy Miller. "I guess my mother won't go, after all,"
she said. "She don't like to ride round in the afternoon.
But did you really mean what you said just now--that you would
like to go up there?"
"Most earnestly," Winterbourne declared.
"Then we may arrange it. If mother will stay with Randolph,
I guess Eugenio will."
"Eugenio?" the young man inquired.
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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 Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: deals with other things than does the Gospel. The civil rulers
defend not minds, but bodies and bodily things against
manifest injuries, and restrain men with the sword and bodily
punishments in order to preserve civil justice and peace.
Therefore the power of the Church and the civil power must not
be confounded. The power of the Church has its own commission
to teach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments. Let it
not break into the office of another; Let it not transfer the
kingdoms of this world; let it not abrogate the laws of civil
rulers; let it not abolish lawful obedience; let it not
interfere with judgments concerning civil ordinances or
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