| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: Will slavery never come to an end? That question, said he,
was asked fifty years ago, and it has been answered by fifty years
of unprecedented prosperity. Spite of the eloquence of the earnest
Abolitionists,--poured out against slavery during thirty years,--
even they must confess, that, in all the probabilities of the case,
that system of barbarism would have continued its horrors far beyond
the limits of the nineteenth century but for the Rebellion,
and perhaps only have disappeared at last in a fiery conflict,
even more fierce and bloody than that which has now been suppressed.
It is no disparagement to truth, that it can only prevail
where reason prevails. War begins where reason ends.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: hands.
"Look at here, Tommy, whatever you know, you keep your mouth
shet, and whatever you don't know, you keep your mouth shet, if
you know what's good for you," he said, in a fierce whisper.
The boy whistled and shrugged his shoulders loose. "You know I
ain't goin' to tell tales, grandpa," he said, in a curiously
manly fashion.
The old man nodded. "All right, Tommy. I don't believe you be,
nuther, but you may jest as well git it through your head what's
goin' to happen if you do."
"Ain't goin' to," returned the boy. He whistled charmingly as he
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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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: But still they traveled deeper into the forest shades, and the deeper
they went, the more quiet grew the Sheriff. At last they came
to where the road took a sudden bend, and before them a herd of dun
deer went tripping across the path. Then Robin Hood came close
to the Sheriff and pointing his finger, he said, "These are my
horned beasts, good Master Sheriff. How dost thou like them?
Are they not fat and fair to see?"
At this the Sheriff drew rein quickly. "Now fellow," quoth he,
"I would I were well out of this forest, for I like not thy company.
Go thou thine own path, good friend, and let me but go mine."
But Robin only laughed and caught the Sheriff's bridle rein.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
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 Symposium by Plato: like the skin of the wanton satyr--for his talk is of pack-asses and smiths
and cobblers and curriers, and he is always repeating the same things in
the same words (compare Gorg.), so that any ignorant or inexperienced
person might feel disposed to laugh at him; but he who opens the bust and
sees what is within will find that they are the only words which have a
meaning in them, and also the most divine, abounding in fair images of
virtue, and of the widest comprehension, or rather extending to the whole
duty of a good and honourable man.
This, friends, is my praise of Socrates. I have added my blame of him for
his ill-treatment of me; and he has ill-treated not only me, but Charmides
the son of Glaucon, and Euthydemus the son of Diocles, and many others in
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