| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: dition that tormented me. There was no getting rid
of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within
sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver
trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal
wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear
no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and
seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment
me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw
nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without
hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It
looked from every star, it smiled in every calm,
 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: the rewards of his gifts alone overpasseth them that love him,
supply that which is lacking to my gratitude!"
Here Barlaam cut short his lamentation, and rose and stood up to
pray, lifting up his either hand, and saying, "O God and Father
of our Lord Jesu Christ, which didst illuminate the things that
once were darkened, and bring this visible and invisible creation
out of nothing, and didst turn again this thine handiwork, and
sufferedst us not to walk after our foolishness, we give thanks
to thee and to thy Wisdom and Might, our Lord Jesu Christ, by
whom thou didst make the worlds, didst raise us from our fall,
didst forgive us our trespasses, didst restore us from wandering,
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