| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: finally into ditches, and he never arrived at his goal.
There in that library window nook it is cool in summer,
and warm in winter. So he sits and dreams, holding an
open volume, unread, on his knees. Some times he writes,
hunched up in his corner, feverishly scribbling at
ridiculous plays, short stories, and novels
which later he will insist on reading to the tittering
schoolboys and girls who come into the library to do
their courting and reference work. Presently, when it
grows dusk, Old Man Randall will put away his book, throw
his coat over his shoulders, sleeves dangling, flowing
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: looking all round him, appreciatively. It was the first time
that Gertrude had heard so many words of French spoken.
They gave her something of a sensation. Her companion followed
her, watching, with a certain excitement of his own, this tall,
interesting-looking girl, dressed in her clear, crisp muslin.
He paused in the hall, where there was a broad white staircase
with a white balustrade. "What a pleasant house!" he said.
"It 's lighter inside than it is out."
"It 's pleasanter here," said Gertrude, and she led the way
into the parlor,--a high, clean, rather empty-looking room.
Here they stood looking at each other,--the young man smiling
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: And in this aim there is such thwarting strife,
That one for all, or all for one we gage;
As life for honour in fell battles' rage;
Honour for wealth; and oft that wealth doth cost
The death of all, and all together lost.
So that in vent'ring ill we leave to be
The things we are, for that which we expect;
And this ambitious foul infirmity,
In having much, torments us with defect
Of that we have: so then we do neglect
The thing we have; and, all for want of wit,
|
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 Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: and this so-called tickling of the mind is curiously analogous with
that of the body. Every one knows how immoderately children laugh,
and how their whole bodies are convulsed when they are tickled.
The anthropoid apes, as we have seen, likewise utter a reiterated sound,
corresponding with our laughter, when they are tickled, especially under
the armpits. I touched with a bit of paper the sole of the foot of one
of my infants, when only seven days old, and it was suddenly jerked
away and the toes curled about, as in an older child. Such movements,
as well as laughter from being tickled, are manifestly reflex actions;
and this is likewise shown by the minute unstriped muscles, which serve
to erect the separate hairs on the body, contracting near a tickled
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
