| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: even for those by whom it is opposed. I take the anti-slavery
movement to be such an one, and a movement as sublime and
glorious in its character, as it is holy and beneficent in the
ends it aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it safe to
say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than
any other subject now before the American people. The late John
C. Calhoun--one of the mightiest men that ever stood up in the
American senate--did not deem it beneath him; and he probably
studied it as deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or
William Lloyd Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with
the subject; and the greatest efforts of his last years in the
My Bondage and My Freedom |
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 Camille by Alexandre Dumas: owe to you.
"I should have called to-day to ask after you, but I intend going
back to my father's.
"Good-bye, my dear Marguerite. I am not rich enough to love you
as I would nor poor enough to love you as you would. Let us then
forget, you a name which must be indifferent enough to you, I a
happiness which has become impossible.
"I send back your key, which I have never used, and which might
be useful to you, if you are often ill as you were yesterday."
As you will see, I was unable to end my letter without a touch of
impertinent irony, which proved how much in love I still was.
Camille |
