| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: with Mr. Covey. We were worked in all weathers.
It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain,
blow, hail, or snow, too hard for us to work in the
field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order
of the day than of the night. The longest days were
too short for him, and the shortest nights too long
for him. I was somewhat unmanageable when I first
went there, but a few months of this discipline
tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I
was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural
elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: his wild oats in the spring sows them in the winter. If I have but
eighty thousand francs a year at the age of seventy, it is because I
ran through the capital at thirty. Oh! with my wife--in decency and
honor. However, your imperfections will not interfere with my
introducing you at the Pavillon Planat. Remember, you have promised to
come, and I shall expect you."
"What an odd little old man!" said Longueville to himself. "He is so
jolly and hale; but though he wishes to seem a good fellow, I will not
trust him too far."
Next day, at about four o'clock, when the house party were dispersed
in the drawing-rooms and billiard-room, a servant announced to the
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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 The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: now, and for your sake I could be glad of it. When you first
came to my father's house--do you remember those days? I
want you to--you saw the best of me then, all that was good in
me. Do you remember the day I took your hand and would not
let it go--and the day on Battersea Bridge, when we were
looking at a barge, and I began to tell you one of my silly
stories, and broke off to say I loved you? That was the
beginning, and now here is the end. When you have read this
letter, you will go round and kiss them all good-bye, my father
and mother, and the children, one by one, and poor uncle; And
tell them all to forget me, and forget me yourself. Turn the key
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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 Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: the grooves of launching: So forth into life and fear not, for so
did we all in the ancient ages." And their voices passed away like
an eddy in a river.
"Now," said the Poor Thing, "they have told you a lesson, but make
them give you a gift. Stoop your hand among the bones without
drawback, and you shall find their treasure."
So the man stooped his hand, and the dead laid hold upon it many
and faint like ants; but he shook them off, and behold, what he
brought up in his hand was the shoe of a horse, and it was rusty.
"It is a thing of no price," quoth the man, "for it is rusty."
"We shall see that," said the Poor Thing; "for in my thought it is
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