| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: because I had not consciously anticipated it. In another instant
the metal door was slowly swinging open with only the faintest
grating sound.
Dazedly I looked over the row of greyish case
ends thus exposed, and felt a tremendous surge of some wholly
inexplicable emotion. Just within reach of my right hand was a
case whose curving hieroglyphs made me shake with a pang infinitely
more complex than one of mere fright. Still shaking, I managed
to dislodge it amidst a shower of gritty flakes, and ease it over
toward myself without any violent noise.
Like the other case
Shadow out of Time |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: born with a silver-mounted bridle in their hand, and can ride as
much and as often as they like, without thinking all the time they
hear that steady grinding sound as the horse's jaws triturate with
calm lateral movement the bank-bills and promises to pay upon which
it is notorious that the profligate animal in question feeds day
and night.
Instead, however, of considering these kinds of exercise in this
empirical way, I will devote a brief space to an examination of
them in a more scientific form.
The pleasure of exercise is due first to a purely physical
impression, and secondly to a sense of power in action. The first
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
