| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: of the counties of Stirling, Dumbarton, and Renfrew, they would
have found, under that enormous lid, an immense excavation,
to which but one other in the world can be compared--
the celebrated Mammoth caves of Kentucky. This excavation was
composed of several hundred divisions of all sizes and shapes.
It might be called a hive with numberless ranges of cells,
capriciously arranged, but a hive on a vast scale, and which,
instead of bees, might have lodged all the ichthyosauri,
megatheriums, and ptero-dactyles of the geological epoch.
A labyrinth of galleries, some higher than the most lofty cathedrals,
others like cloisters, narrow and winding--these following a horizontal
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: steam away. They can neither harm nor detain us, nor will we
have to fire a shot at them."
And so it was done, Bradley and Co-Tan taking Ajor and Billings
aboard to "show" them the vessel, which almost immediately raised
anchor and moved slowly out into the sea.
"I hate to do it," said Billings. "They have been fine to me.
Jor and Tan are splendid men and they will think me an ingrate;
but I can't waste my life here when there is so much to be done
in the outer world."
As they steamed down the inland sea past the island of Oo-oh, the
stories of their adventures were retold, and Bradley learned that
Out of Time's Abyss |
| 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: seems to me, are the true causes of drunkenness, increasing or
not. And if we wish to become a more temperate nation, we must
lessen them, if we cannot eradicate them.
First, overwork. We all live too fast, and work too hard. "All
things are full of labour, man cannot utter it." In the heavy
struggle for existence which goes on all around us, each man is
tasked more and more--if he be really worth buying and using--to
the utmost of his powers all day long. The weak have to compete
on equal terms with the strong; and crave, in consequence, for
artificial strength. How we shall stop that I know not, while
every man is "making haste to be rich, and piercing himself
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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 My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice
against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet
amusement. A half-cured subject of it is sometimes driven into
awkward straits, especially if he happens to get a genuine
specimen of the race into his house.
<311 AMUSING SCENE>
In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and lecturing, in company
with William A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana. Anti-
slavery friends were not very abundant in Indiana, at that time,
and beds were not more plentiful than friends. We often slept
out, in preference to sleeping in the houses, at some points. At
My Bondage and My Freedom |
