| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: undulating song, sung, resung, interrupted, renewed, and hushed at
last in a final modulation, the tones of which died away like the
lingering vibrations of a bell.
At this moment a voice, which he fancied was that of a siren rising
from the sea, a woman's voice, repeated the air he had sung, but with
all the hesitations of a person to whom music is revealed for the
first time. He recognized the stammering of a heart born into the
poesy of harmony. Etienne, to whom long study of his own voice had
taught the language of sounds, in which the soul finds resources
greater than speech to express its thoughts, could divine the timid
amazement that attended these attempts. With what religious and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: which God hath prepared for them that love him, in the kingdom of
heaven, in the light which no man can approach unto, in his
unspeakable and unending glory.
"Such joys and such bliss shall the righteous obtain, but they
that have denied the only true God and not known their Maker and
Creator, but have worshipped foul devils, and rendered homage to
dumb idols, and loved the pleasures of this vain world, and, like
swine, wallowed in the mire of sinful lusts, and made their lives
a headquarters for all wickedness, shall stand naked and laid
bare, downright ashamed and downcast, pitiable in appearance and
in fact, set forth for a reproach to all creation. All their
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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 Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: 20. Igitur papa per remissionem plenariam omnium penarum non
simpliciter omnium intelligit, sed a seipso tantummodo
impositarum.
21. Errant itaque indulgentiarum predicatores ii, qui dicunt per
pape indulgentias hominem ab omni pena solvi et salvari.
22. Quin nullam remittit animabus in purgatorio, quam in hac vita
debuissent secundum Canones solvere.
23. Si remissio ulla omnium omnino penarum potest alicui dari,
certum est eam non nisi perfectissimis, i.e. paucissimis, dari.
24. Falli ob id necesse est maiorem partem populi per
indifferentem illam et magnificam pene solute promissionem.
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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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: in its walls a goodly sum of hopeless human misery and misfortune.
It was an insane asylum.
For twenty years now, the asylum had stood on its hill, a source of
superstitious terror to the villagers, but at the same time a source
of added income. It meant money for them, for it afforded a
constant and ever-open market for their farm products and the output
of their home industry. But every now and then a scream or a harsh
laugh would ring out from behind those barred windows, and those in
the village who could hear, would shiver and cross themselves.
Shepherd Janci had little fear of the big house. His little hut
cowered close by the high iron gates, and he had a personal
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