| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name"; and he leaned
down and plucked it.
Then he put on his hat, and ran up to the Professor's house with
the rose in his hand.
The daughter of the Professor was sitting in the doorway winding
blue silk on a reel, and her little dog was lying at her feet.
"You said that you would dance with me if I brought you a red
rose," cried the Student. "Here is the reddest rose in all the
world. You will wear it to-night next your heart, and as we dance
together it will tell you how I love you."
But the girl frowned.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: difficulties, in escaping out of the jaws of the
wicked.
PART II.
--------------
AFTER my wife had a little recovered herself,
she threw off the disguise and assumed her own
apparel. We then stepped into the sitting-room, and
asked to see the landlord. The man came in, but
he seemed thunderstruck on finding a fugitive
slave and his wife, instead of a "young cotton planter
and his nigger." As his eyes travelled round the
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: prefer that your attorney's name should not appear I wish it less in
my own interest than in yours. . . . When I give myself, it is without
reserve. And in return, madame, I ask the same fidelity; I ask my
patrons (I do not venture to call you my clients) to put the same
confidence in me. You may think that in acting thus I am trying to
fasten upon this affair--no, no, madame; there may be reprehensible
things done; with an inheritance in view one is dragged on . . .
especially with nine hundred thousand francs in the balance. Well,
now, you could not disavow a man like Maitre Godeschal, honesty
itself, but you can throw all the blame on the back of a miserable
pettifogging lawyer--"
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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 Economist by Xenophon: Yes, certainly (Ischomachus answered), and I remember how piqued she
was at one time and how deeply she blushed, when I chanced to ask her
for something which had been brought into the house, and she could not
give it me. So I, when I saw her annoyance, fell to consoling her. "Do
not be at all disheartened, my wife, that you cannot give me what I
ask for. It is plain poverty,[1] no doubt, to need a thing and not to
have the use of it. But as wants go, to look for something which I
cannot lay my hands upon is a less painful form of indigence than
never to dream of looking because I know full well that the thing
exists not. Anyhow, you are not to blame for this," I added; "mine the
fault was who handed over to your care the things without assigning
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