| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: be enemies, may be wanted as friends. What has been, may be
again. There is a point beyond which human endurance cannot go.
The crushed worm may yet turn under the heel of the oppressor. I
warn them, then, with all solemnity, and in the name of
retributive justice, _to look to their ways;_ for in an evil
hour, those sable arms that have, for the last two centuries,
been engaged in cultivating and adorning the fair fields of our
country, may yet become the instruments of terror, desolation,
and death, throughout our borders.
It was the sage of the Old Dominion that said--while speaking of
the possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: into the coach-house till the morning, but to no purpose,
"It is unkind and unchristian." she said, "to leave the
poor thing in a coach-house all night."
Very well, then." said the parson. "And I will
arrange that the funeral shall take place early to-
morrow. Perhaps Mrs. Troy is right in feeling that we
cannot treat a dead fellow-creature too thoughtfully
We must remember that though she may have erred
grievously in leaving her home, she is still our sister:
and it is to be believed that God's uncovenanted
mercies are extended towards her, and that she is a
Far From the Madding Crowd |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: described as superhuman, or as differing in nature from other
men, save in his freedom from sin. As Baur has shown, "the proper
nature of the Pauline Christ is human. He is a man, but a
spiritual man, one in whom spirit or pneuma was the essential
principle, so that he was spirit as well as man. The principle of
an ideal humanity existed before Christ in the bright form of a
typical man, but was manifested to mankind in the person of
Christ." Such, according to Baur, is Paul's interpretation of the
Messianic idea. Paul knows nothing of the miracles, of the
supernatural conception, of the incarnation, or of the Logos. The
Christ whom he preaches is the man Jesus, the founder of a new
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
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 Cromwell by William Shakespeare: Learning kills learning, and instead of Ink
To dip his Pen, Cromwell's heart blood doth drink.
[Enter all the Nobles.]
NORFOLK.
Good morrow, Cromwell. What, alone, so sad?
CROMWELL.
One good among you, none of you are bad.--
For my part, it best fits me be alone;
Sadness with me, not I with any one.
What, is the king acquainted with my cause?
NORFOLK.
|
