| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: there was an agent who helped them, but he proved a scoundrel, and got
them into a trap with some officials, and cost them a good deal of their
precious money, which they clung to with such horrible fear. This happened
to them again in New York--for, of course, they knew nothing about the
country, and had no one to tell them, and it was easy for a man in a blue
uniform to lead them away, and to take them to a hotel and keep them there,
and make them pay enormous charges to get away. The law says that the
rate card shall be on the door of a hotel, but it does not say that it
shall be in Lithuanian.
It was in the stockyards that Jonas' friend had gotten rich, and so to
Chicago the party was bound. They knew that one word, Chicago and that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: buys a large quantity; he returns, takes his whip,
and commands the slave to eat the molasses, until
the poor fellow is made sick at the very mention
of it. The same mode is sometimes adopted to make
the slaves refrain from asking for more food than
their regular allowance. A slave runs through his
allowance, and applies for more. His master is en-
raged at him; but, not willing to send him off with-
out food, gives him more than is necessary, and com-
pels him to eat it within a given time. Then, if he
complains that he cannot eat it, he is said to be
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
