| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: page to be found in literature. But then, you see, I have been
called romantic. Well, that can't be helped. But stay. I seem
to remember that I have been called a realist also. And as that
charge too can be made out, let us try to live up to it, at
whatever cost, for a change. With this end in view, I will
confide to you coyly, and only because there is no one about to
see my blushes by the light of the midnight lamp, that these
suggestive bits of quarter-deck appreciation one and all contain
the words "strictly sober."
Did I overhear a civil murmur, "That's very gratifying, to be
sure"? Well, yes, it is gratifying--thank you. It is at least
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: because both the Scotch and the Irish seem to be without those traits
which especially grate upon us and upon which we especially grate. And
now for the letters.
The first is from a soldier, an enlisted man, writing from France.
"Allow me to thank you for your article entitled 'The Ancient Grudge.'
... Like many other young Americans there was instilled in me from early
childhood a feeling of resentment against our democratic cousins across
the Atlantic and I was only too ready to accept as true those stories I
heard of England shirking her duty and hiding behind her colonies, etc.
It was not until I came over here and saw what she was really doing that
my opinion began to change.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: little slip of memory. One can find definite types of
intellectual honesty, even among children of 10 or 12 years of
age, when there is no tampering with the truth; if an item has
not been observed, there is no effort to make it seem otherwise.
For discussion of the results on this test among our pathological
liars we refer to our chapter on conclusions.
[7] ``Tests for Practical Mental Classification,'' by William
Healy and Grace M. Fernald, Monograph No. 54. Psychological
Review Pub. Co., 1911, Princeton University, Princeton, N. J.
The short summary of causative factors given at the end of the
case study deals only with the factors of delinquency. To avoid
|
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 The Koran: for God does not guide unjust folk.
Or like him who passed by a village, when it was desolate and turned
over on its roofs, and said, 'How will God revive this after its
death?' And God made him die for a hundred years, then He raised
him, and said, 'How long hast thou tarried?' Said he, 'I have
tarried a day, or some part of a day.' He said, 'Nay, thou hast
tarried a hundred years; look at thy food and drink, they are not
spoiled, and look at thine ass; for we will make thee a sign to men.
And look at the bones how we scatter them and then clothe them with
flesh.' And when it was made manifest to him, he said, 'I know that
God is mighty over all.'
The Koran |
