| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: the place of his birth, the names of those who
claimed ownership in his body and soul, and the
names also of those who committed the crimes which
he has alleged against them. His statements, there-
fore, may easily be disproved, if they are untrue.
In the course of his Narrative, he relates two in-
stances of murderous cruelty,--in one of which a
planter deliberately shot a slave belonging to a neigh-
boring plantation, who had unintentionally gotten
within his lordly domain in quest of fish; and in the
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: danger from which he, Davidson, had escaped. And this, too, after
he had been laughing at her unreasonable fears only a short time
before.
"'I thought that if I told her everything,' Davidson explained to
me, 'she would never have a moment's peace while I was away on my
trips.'
"He simply stated that the boy was an orphan, the child of some
people to whom he, Davidson, was under the greatest obligation, and
that he felt morally bound to look after him. Some day he would
tell her more, he said, and meantime he trusted in the goodness and
warmth of her heart, in her woman's natural compassion.
Within the Tides |
