| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: - with a feeble attempt at a laugh, I said, 'My hands are so
benumbed with the cold that I can scarcely handle my knife and
fork.'
'I daresay you would find it cold,' replied she with a cool,
immutable gravity that did not serve to re-assure me.
When the ceremony was concluded, she led me into the sitting-room
again, where she rang and sent for the children.
'You will find them not very far advanced in their attainments,'
said she, 'for I have had so little time to attend to their
education myself, and we have thought them too young for a
governess till now; but I think they are clever children, and very
Agnes Grey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: came into my mind that Baleka might have changed her place, and that I
might wake the wrong girl. I almost gave it over, thinking that I
would fly alone, when suddenly I heard a girl wake and begin to cry on
the other side of the thatch. "Ah," I thought, "that is Baleka, who
weeps for her brother!" So I put my lips where the thatch was thinnest
and whispered:--
"Baleka, my sister! Baleka, do not weep! I, Mopo, am here. Say not a
word, but rise. Come out of the hut, bringing your skin blanket.
Now Baleka was very clever: she did not shriek, as most girls would
have done. No; she understood, and, after waiting awhile, she rose and
crept from the hut, her blanket in her hand.
Nada the Lily |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: from their labors. I am under many grateful obligations to them.
They not only "took me in when a stranger" and "fed me when hungry,"
but taught me how to make an honest living. Thus, in a fortnight
after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, a citizen of
the grand old commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Once initiated into my new life of freedom and assured by Mr. Johnson
that I need not fear recapture in that city, a comparatively unimportant
question arose as to the name by which I should be known thereafter
in my new relation as a free man. The name given me by my dear mother
was no less pretentious and long than Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.
I had, however, while living in Maryland, dispensed with the
|
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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: that you sail oversea to seek the Spaniard?'
'I sail to seek the Spaniard, and to find him and to kill him when
he is found. It was to come to you, Lily, that I let him go, now I
must let you go to come to him. Nay, do not weep, I have sworn to
do it, and were I to break my oath I should be dishonoured.'
'And because of this oath of yours I must be widowed, Thomas,
before I am a wife? You go and I shall never see you more.'
'Who can say, my sweet? My father went over seas and came back
safe, having passed through many perils.'
'Yes, he came back and--not alone. You are young, Thomas, and in
far countries there are ladies great and fair, and how shall I hold
Montezuma's Daughter |
