| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: trifling litigation is never conducted without the introduction
of an entire system of ideas peculiar to the counsel employed;
and the fundamental principles of law are discussed in order to
obtain a perch of land by the decision of the court. This
abnegation of his own opinion, and this implicit deference to the
opinion of his forefathers, which are common to the English and
American lawyer, this subjection of thought which he is obliged
to profess, necessarily give him more timid habits and more
sluggish inclinations in England and America than in France.
The French codes are often difficult of comprehension, but
they can be read by every one; nothing, on the other hand, can be
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: Another somewhat old essay, namely, the `Discours,' delivered
1774-1782, by the well-known Dutch anatomist Camper,[3] can hardly
be considered as having made any marked advance in the subject.
The following works, on the contrary, deserve the fullest consideration.
Sir Charles Bell, so illustrious for his discoveries in physiology,
published in 1806 the first edition, and in
[1] J. Parsons, in his paper in the Appendix to the
`Philosophical Transactions' for 1746, p. 41, gives a list
of forty-one old authors who have written on Expression.
[2] Conferences sur l'expression des differents Caracteres
des Passions.' Paris, 4to, 1667. I always quote from the
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: And therein reverenced for their lawful king:
Shall I, for lucre of the rest unvanquish'd,
Detract so much from that prerogative,
As to be call'd but viceroy of the whole?
No, lord ambassador, I 'll rather keep
That which I have than, coveting for more,
Be cast from possibility of all.
YORK.
Insulting Charles! hast thou by secret means
Used intercession to obtain a league,
And, now the matter grows to compromise,
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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 Ion by Plato: of Panopeus, or of Theodorus the Samian, or of any individual sculptor; but
when the works of sculptors in general were produced, was at a loss and
went to sleep and had nothing to say?
ION: No indeed; no more than the other.
SOCRATES: And if I am not mistaken, you never met with any one among
flute-players or harp-players or singers to the harp or rhapsodes who was
able to discourse of Olympus or Thamyras or Orpheus, or Phemius the
rhapsode of Ithaca, but was at a loss when he came to speak of Ion of
Ephesus, and had no notion of his merits or defects?
ION: I cannot deny what you say, Socrates. Nevertheless I am conscious in
my own self, and the world agrees with me in thinking that I do speak
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