| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: young man of twenty-five."
"By Jove!"
"Be quiet," said Rosa, smiling, "he is still under age, as
you have yourself fixed it from twenty-six to twenty-eight."
"In fine, do you think you may rely on this young man?"
"As on myself; he would throw himself into the Waal or the
Meuse if I bade him."
"Well, Rosa, this lad may be at Haarlem in ten hours; you
will give me paper and pencil, and, perhaps better still,
pen and ink, and I will write, or rather, on second
thoughts, you will, for if I did, being a poor prisoner,
The Black Tulip |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: they later make the basis for pathological lies and swindling.
In this hypnoidal state a strongly heightened suggestibility
exists and trivial external causes give daydreams their
direction. The general trend of fancy reveals naturally the
inclinations and ideals of the affected individual. Stemmermann
also maintained that the pathological lie is a wish psychosis.
Even outside of the hypnoidal state, these cases are more
suggestible than the general run of people.
[14] ``Beitrage und Kasuistik der Pseudologia phantastica.'' Geo.
Reimer, Berlin, 1906, pp. 102.
Of Stemmermann's own cases, ten in number, only four at most were
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to life? Do the
stars rain down an influence, or do we share some thrill of mother
earth below our resting bodies? Even shepherds and old country-
folk, who are the deepest read in these arcana, have not a guess as
to the means or purpose of this nightly resurrection. Towards two
in the morning they declare the thing takes place; and neither know
nor inquire further. And at least it is a pleasant incident. We
are disturbed in our slumber only, like the luxurious Montaigne,
'that we may the better and more sensibly relish it.' We have a
moment to look upon the stars. And there is a special pleasure for
some minds in the reflection that we share the impulse with all
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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 Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: tears are copiously secreted; and this likewise follows from
a blow on the nose, for instance from a boxing-glove. A stinging
switch on the face produces, as I have seen, the same effect.
In these latter cases the secretion of tears is an incidental result,
and of no direct service. As all these parts of the face,
including the lacrymal glands, are supplied with branches
of the same nerve, namely, the fifth, it is in some degree
intelligible that the effects of the excitement of any one branch
should spread to the nerve-cells or roots of the other branches.
The internal parts of the eye likewise act, under certain conditions,
in a reflex manner on the lacrymal glands. The following statements
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
