| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: and other parts of your conduct, as if, all sin was reduced to,
and comprehended in, THE ACT OF BEARING ARMS, and that by the people only.
Ye appear to us, to have mistaken party for conscience; because,
the general tenor of your actions wants uniformity--And it is exceedingly
difficult to us to give credit to many of your pretended scruples;
because, we see them made by the same men, who, in the very instant
that they are exclaiming against the mammon of this world, are nevertheless,
hunting after it with a step as steady as Time, and an appetite as keen
as Death.
The quotation which ye have made from Proverbs, in the third page
of your testimony, that, "when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh
Common Sense |
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 Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: made myself responsible to the minister for your future conduct. My
good nephew, if you want to make your way be careful not to excite
ecclesiastical enmities. Go at once to Tours and try to make your
peace with that devil of a vicar-general; remember that such priests
are men with whom we absolutely MUST live in harmony. Good heavens!
when we are all striving and working to re-establish religion it is
actually stupid, in a lieutenant who wants to be made a captain, to
affront the priests. If you don't make up matters with that Abbe
Troubert you needn't count on me; I shall abandon you. The minister of
ecclesiastical affairs told me just now that Troubert was certain to
be made bishop before long; if he takes a dislike to our family he
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