| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: that the whole business looked apocryphal, and that a man does
not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning
and come out with another man's cheque for close upon a hundred
pounds. But he was quite easy and sneering. `Set your mind at
rest,' says he, `I will stay with you till the banks open and cash
the cheque myself.' So we all set of, the doctor, and the child's
father, and our friend and myself, and passed the rest of the
night in my chambers; and next day, when we had breakfasted, went
in a body to the bank. I gave in the cheque myself, and said I
had every reason to believe it was a forgery. Not a bit of it.
The cheque was genuine."
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: in the stable body of society, to recognize and make demands, to
become a taxpayer, a churchgoer, a householder, a husband. As I
gazed, the signature changed from that of a gnome with luminous eyes
who inhabited an inaccessible crag among the rhododendrons to that
of a prosperous artist-bourgeois with a silk hat for Sundays. I
have in some small degree the psychological knack, I saw the
possibilities of the situation with immense clearness; and I cursed
the cheque.
Coincidence is odious, tells on the nerves. I never felt it more so
than a week later, when I read in the 'Pioneer' the announcement of
the death of my old friend Fry, Superintendent of the School of Art
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: 'Does spring hide its joy,
When buds and blossoms grow?
Does the sower
Sow by night,
Or the ploughman in darkness plough?
'Break this heavy chain,
That does freeze my bones around!
Selfish, vain,
Eternal bane,
That free love with bondage bound.'
THE CLOD AND THE PEBBLE
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
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 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: he would not be authorised in breaking the door of
Craft's house. Craft kept himself close within the
house, armed himself, and awaited with remarkable
composure the event. Ellen, in the meantime, had
been taken to a retired place out of the city. The
Vigilance Committee (appointed at a late meeting
in Fanueil Hall) enlarged their numbers, held an
almost permanent session, and appointed various sub-
committees to act in different ways. One of these
committees called repeatedly on Messrs. Hughes
and Knight, the slave-catchers, and requested and
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
