| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: you sit in your gondola the footways that in certain parts edge
the canals assume to the eye the importance of a stage, meeting it
at the same angle, and the Venetian figures, moving to and fro
against the battered scenery of their little houses of comedy,
strike you as members of an endless dramatic troupe.
I went to bed that night very tired, without being able to compose
a letter to Miss Tita. Was this failure the reason why I became
conscious the next morning as soon as I awoke of a determination
to see the poor lady again the first moment she would receive me?
That had something to do with it, but what had still more was the fact
that during my sleep a very odd revulsion had taken place in my spirit.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: But (rejoined Socrates) Antisthenes is a man of great pertinacity, who
insists on winning, and that is a very necessary quality in a
general.[3] Do not you see how each time he has been choragos[4] he
has been successful with one chorus after another?
[3] See Grote, "Plato," i. 465 foll.
[4] Choir-master, or Director of the Chorus. It was his duty to
provide and preside over a chorus to sing, dance, or play at any
of the public festivals, defraying the cost as a state service of
{leitourgia}. See "Pol. Ath." iii. 4; "Hiero," ix. 4; Aristot.
"Pol. Ath." 28. 3.
Nic. Bless me! yes; but there is a wide difference between standing at
The Memorabilia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: parts of the world often exhibit their shame by looking
downwards or askant, or by restless movements of their eyes.
Ezra cries out (ch. ix. 6), "O, my God! I am ashamed,
and blush to lift up my head to thee, my God." In Isaiah
(ch. I. 6) we meet with the words, "I hid not my face from shame."
Seneca remarks (Epist. xi. 5) "that the Roman players hang down
their heads, fix their eyes on the ground and keep them lowered,
but are unable to blush in acting shame." According to Macrobius,
who lived in the filth century (`Saturnalia,' B. vii.
C. 11), "Natural philosophers assert that nature being moved
by shame spreads the blood before herself as a veil, as we
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
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 Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Tara of Helium," he said, "your words are balm to the wound you
gave me in the throne room of O-Tar. Tell me, Princess, why you
denied me."
She turned her great, deep eyes up to his and in them was a
little of reproach.
"You did not guess," she asked, "that it was my lips alone and
not my heart that denied you? O-Tar had ordered that I die, more
because I was a companion of Ghek than because of any evidence
against me, and so I knew that if I acknowledged you as one of
us, you would be slain, too."
"It was to save me, then?" he cried, his face suddenly lighting.
The Chessmen of Mars |
