| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: menagerie, for these remains were not brought here by a deluge. The
animals to which they belonged roamed on the shores of this
subterranean sea, under the shade of those arborescent trees. Here
are entire skeletons. And yet I cannot understand the appearance of
these quadrupeds in a granite cavern."
[1] These animals belonged to a late geological period, the Pliocene,
just before the glacial epoch, and therefore could have no connection
with the carboniferous vegetation. (Trans.)
"Why?"
"Because animal life existed upon the earth only in the secondary
period, when a sediment of soil had been deposited by the rivers, and
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
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: from, and which side you goin day wid dat ar little
don up buckra" (white man)?
I replied, "To Philadelphia."
"What!" he exclaimed, with astonishment, "to
Philumadelphy?"
"Yes," I said.
"By squash! I wish I was going wid you! I
hears um say dat dare's no slaves way over in dem
parts; is um so?"
I quietly said, "I have heard the same thing."
"Well," continued he, as he threw down 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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: approximation between the divine and the human natures; and
whether or not they agree with the author altogether, all will
agree, I think, that the first idea of a hero or a heroine was a
godlike man or godlike woman.
A godlike man. What varied, what infinite forms of nobleness that
word might include, ever increasing, as men's notions of the gods
became purer and loftier, or, alas! decreasing, as their notions
became degraded. The old Greeks, with that intense admiration of
beauty which made them, in after ages, the master-sculptors and
draughtsmen of their own, and, indeed, of any age, would, of
course, require in their hero, their god-like man, beauty and
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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 Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: friends to office.
There was also some talk of making General Grant the Republican
candidate for President, and an attempt was even made to trap Mr.
Lincoln into taking part in a meeting where this was to be done.
Mr. Lincoln refused to attend, and instead wrote a letter of such
hearty and generous approval of Grant and his army that the
meeting naturally fell into the hands of Mr. Lincoln's friends.
General Grant, never at that time or any other, gave the least
encouragement to the efforts which were made to array him against
the President. Mr. Lincoln, on his part, received all warnings to
beware of Grant in the most serene manner, saying tranquilly, "If
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