The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: unassertive figure with a face half-obliterated by lifeless,
silky hair, continually occupied in "taking care" of his wife,
continually harassed by the idea that he didn't and couldn't
understand her.
But Beatrice Blaine! There was a woman! Early pictures taken on
her father's estate at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, or in Rome at the
Sacred Heart Conventan educational extravagance that in her youth
was only for the daughters of the exceptionally wealthy showed
the
exquisite delicacy of her features, the consummate art and
simplicity of her clothes. A brilliant education she had her
This Side of Paradise |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: people over wine.
Soc. Are you aware that you at present are annoying us by silence?
Her. What, whilst you are talking?
Soc. No, when we pause a while.
Her. Then you have not observed that, as to any interval between your
talk, a man would find it hard to insert a hair, much more one grain
of sense.
Then Socrates: O Callias, to the rescue! help a man severely handled
by his cross-examiner.
Call. With all my heart (and as he spoke he faced Hermogenes). Why,
when the flute is talking, we are as silent as the grave.
The Symposium |