| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: place: but, as we were there, and did not mean
to leave that night, we did not disturb ourselves.
On our ordering tea, the landlady sent word back
to say that we must take it in the kitchen, or in our
bed-room, as she had no other room for "niggers."
We replied that we were not particular, and that
they could sent it up to our room,--which they did.
After the pro-slavery persons who were staying
there heard that we were in, the whole house
became agitated, and all sorts of oaths and fearful
threats were heaped upon the "d----d niggers, for
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: gleam of hope died out, each day of search proved vain, Adeline sank
into fits of deep melancholy that drove her children to despair.
The Baroness had gone out that morning with fresh hopes, and was
anxiously expected. An official, who was under obligations to Hulot,
to whom he owed his position and advancement, declared that he had
seen the Baron in a box at the Ambigu-Comique theatre with a woman of
extraordinary beauty. So Adeline had gone to call on the Baron
Verneuil. This important personage, while asserting that he had
positively seen his old patron, and that his behaviour to the woman
indicated an illicit establishment, told Madame Hulot that to avoid
meeting him the Baron had left long before the end of the play.
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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 Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: overlooking a windy estuary from the slope and summit of
three hills. No situation could be more commanding for
the head city of a kingdom; none better chosen for noble
prospects. From her tall precipice and terraced gardens
she looks far and wide on the sea and broad champaigns.
To the east you may catch at sunset the spark of the May
lighthouse, where the Firth expands into the German
Ocean; and away to the west, over all the carse of
Stirling, you can see the first snows upon Ben Ledi.
But Edinburgh pays cruelly for her high seat in one
of the vilest climates under heaven. She is liable to be
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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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: the female intellect; thence he proceeded to a closer engagement;
and before the third course he was artfully dissecting Seraphina's
character to her approving husband. Of course no names were used;
and of course the identity of that abstract or ideal man, with whom
she was currently contrasted, remained an open secret. But this
stiff old gentleman had a wonderful instinct for evil, thus to wind
his way into man's citadel; thus to harp by the hour on the virtues
of his hearer and not once alarm his self-respect. Otto was all
roseate, in and out, with flattery and Tokay and an approving
conscience. He saw himself in the most attractive colours. If even
Greisengesang, he thought, could thus espy the loose stitches in
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