| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: preservation of her natural goodness of heart, for slavery can
change a saint into a sinner, and an angel into a demon. I
hardly knew how to behave toward "Miss Sopha," as I used to call
Mrs. Hugh Auld. I had been treated as a _pig_ on the plantation;
I was treated as a _child_ now. I could not even approach her as
I had formerly approached Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang
down my head, and speak with bated breath, when there was no
pride to scorn me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to
inspire me with fear? I therefore soon learned to regard her as
something more akin to a mother, than a slaveholding mistress.
The crouching servility of a slave, usually so acceptable a
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: lighted by electricity. His hand was being squeezed, not by Tydomin,
but by a man dressed in the garments of civilisation, with whose face
he was certainly familiar, but under what circumstances he could not
recall. Other people stood in the background - they too were vaguely
known to him. He sat up and began to smile, without any especial
reason; and then stood upright.
Everybody seemed to be watching him with anxiety and emotion - he
wondered why. Yet he felt that they were all acquaintances. Two in
particular he knew - the man at the farther end of the room, who
paced restlessly backward and forward, his face transfigured by
stern, holy grandeur; and that other big, bearded man - who was
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: would greatly detract from the religious estate, and infringe upon the
sanctity of Carthusians, and would even be regarded as forbidding good
works and clearing the convents. For in this wise the ordinary state of
Christians would be considered just as worthy, and even worthier, and
everybody would see how they mock and delude the world with a false,
hypocritical show of holiness, because they have given this and other
commandments to the winds, and have esteemed them unnecessary, as
though they were not commandments but mere counsels, and have at the
same time shamelessly proclaimed and boasted their hypocritical estate
and works as the most perfect life, in order that they might lead a
pleasant, easy life, without the cross and without patience, for which
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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 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: wings was missing, it being still fastened to the body of the Gargoyle
who had used it. However, the Wizard went once more to his satchel--
which seemed to contain a surprising variety of odds and ends--and
brought out a spool of strong wire, by means of which they managed to
fasten four of the wings to Jim's harness, two near his head and two
near his tail. They were a bit wiggley, but secure enough if only the
harness held together.
The other four wings were then fastened to the buggy, two on each
side, for the buggy must bear the weight of the children and the
Wizard as it flew through the air.
These preparations had not consumed a great deal of time, but the
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
