| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: peoples in the far past, and on the very borderland
of the animal life, having been SUSCEPTIBLE to the germs
of great religious ideas (such as we have mentioned) and
having been instinctively--though not of course by any process
of conscious reasoning--moved to express them in
symbols and rites and ceremonials, and (later no doubt)
in myths and legends, which satisfied their FEELINGS and
sense of fitness--though they may not have known WHY--
and afterwards were capable of being taken up and embodied
in the great philosophical religions.
This difficulty almost compels us to a view of human
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: words:
"Open not."
Within the second box was another, and within that still another,
until there were seven in all, and on each was written the same
words:
"Open not."
Inside the seventh box was a roll of linen, and inside that a
bottle filled with nothing but blue smoke; and I wish that bottle
had burned the Tailor's fingers when he touched it.
"And is this all?" said the little Tailor, turning the bottle
upside down and shaking it, and peeping at it by the light of the
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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 The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: the branches of a mesquite. There could be no doubt of
their identity; Serapio and Antonio they certainly were.
Anastasio Montanez prayed brokenly.
"Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
name. Thy kingdom come..."
"Amen," his men answered in low tones, their heads
bowed, their hats upon their breasts. . . .
Then, hurriedly, they took the Juchipila canyon north-
ward, without halting to rest until nightfall.
Quail kept walking close to Anastasio unable to
banish from his mind the two who were hanged, their
The Underdogs |
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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: sophisticated hearers and authors: a man is no longer the
dupe of his own artifice, and cannot deal playfully with
truths that are a matter of bitter concern to him in his
life. And hence, in the progressive centralisation of modern
thought, we should expect the old form of fable to fall
gradually into desuetude, and be gradually succeeded by
another, which is a fable in all points except that it is not
altogether fabulous. And this new form, such as we should
expect, and such as we do indeed find, still presents the
essential character of brevity; as in any other fable also,
there is, underlying and animating the brief action, a moral
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