| 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: to acknowledge it at all times and in all <267 CHANGE OF
NAME>places; but toward fugitives, Americans are not honest.
When I arrived at New Bedford, my name was Johnson; and finding
that the Johnson family in New Bedford were already quite
numerous--sufficiently so to produce some confusion in attempts
to distinguish one from another--there was the more reason for
making another change in my name. In fact, "Johnson" had been
assumed by nearly every slave who had arrived in New Bedford from
Maryland, and this, much to the annoyance of the original
"Johnsons" (of whom there were many) in that place. Mine host,
unwilling to have another of his own name added to the community
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 Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: enjoy so much as seeing one whom they consider an upstart set in his
place.
Well, a couple of hours afterwards, just as the sun was sinking, who
should walk up to my wagons but Saduko himself, accompanied by a woman
whom I recognised at once as his wife, the Princess Nandie, who carried
a fine baby boy in her arms. Rising, I saluted Nandie and offered her
my camp-stool, which she looked at suspiciously and declined, preferring
to seat herself on the ground after the native fashion. So I took it
back again, and after I had sat down on it, not before, stretched out my
hand to Saduko, who by this time was quite humble and polite.
Well, we talked away, and by degrees, without seeming too much
Child of Storm |
