| 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: and Candlish would speak, that day, in defense of the relations
of the Free Church of Scotland to slavery in America. Messrs.
Thompson, Buffum, myself, and a few anti-slavery friends,
attended, but sat at such a distance, and in such a position,
that, perhaps we were not observed from the platform. The
excitement was intense, having been greatly increased by a series
of meetings held by Messrs. Thompson, Wright, Buffum, and myself,
in the most splendid hall in that most beautiful city, just
previous to the meetings of the general assembly. "SEND BACK THE
MONEY!" stared at us from every street corner; "SEND BACK THE
MONEY!" in large capitals, adorned the broad flags of 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 The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: sight, I rose and bent my steps in the direction of the
pass--the same pass toward which Nobs had evidently been
leading me. I went warily as I approached it, for fear the
party might have halted to rest. If they hadn't halted, I had
no fear of being discovered, for I had seen that the Galus
marched without point, flankers or rear guard; and when I
reached the pass and saw a narrow, one-man trail leading upward
at a stiff angle, I wished that I were chief of the Galus for a
few weeks. A dozen men could hold off forever in that narrow
pass all the hordes which might be brought up from the south;
yet there it lay entirely unguarded.
The People That Time Forgot |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: I would be far from lessening the awe of the judgements of God and
the reverence to His providence which ought always to be on our
minds on such occasions as these. Doubtless the visitation itself is a
stroke from Heaven upon a city, or country, or nation where it falls; a
messenger of His vengeance, and a loud call to that nation or country
or city to humiliation and repentance, according to that of the prophet
Jeremiah (xviii. 7, 8): 'At what instant I shall speak concerning a
nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and
to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from
their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.' Now
to prompt due impressions of the awe of God on the minds of men on
A Journal of the Plague Year |
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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: against. They would open the earth and give to light the wasted
form of my sister, the bloody form of my murdered brother.
Forgive him?--never, never!'
"'Great God!' cried the old man, holding up his hands, 'is it
thus the worms which Thou hast called out of dust obey the
commands of their Maker? Farewell, proud and unforgiving woman.
Exult that thou hast added to a death in want and pain the
agonies of religious despair; but never again mock Heaven by
petitioning for the pardon which thou hast refused to grant.'
"He was turning from her.
"'Stop,' she exclaimed; 'I will try--yes, I will try to pardon
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