| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: Antigone; the bowing down of Iphigenia, lamb-like and silent; and
finally, the expectation of the resurrection, made clear to the soul
of the Greeks in the return from her grave of that Alcestis, who, to
save her husband, had passed calmly through the bitterness of death.
Now I could multiply witness upon witness of this kind upon you if I
had time. I would take Chaucer, and show you why he wrote a Legend
of Good Women; but no Legend of Good Men. I would take Spenser, and
show you how all his fairy knights are sometimes deceived and
sometimes vanquished; but the soul of Una is never darkened, and the
spear of Britomart is never broken. Nay, I could go back into the
mythical teaching of the most ancient times, and show you how the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: alone.
I also met with a coloured gentleman on this
train, who recommended me to a boarding-house
that was kept by an abolitionist, where he thought
I would be quite safe, if I wished to run away
from my master. I thanked him kindly, but of
course did not let him know who we were. Late
at night, or rather early in the morning, I heard
a fearful whistling of the steam-engine; so I
opened the window and looked out, and saw a
large number of flickering lights in the distance,
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
