| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: gentleman, careless, affable, and gay, is the inborn pretension of
the dog. The large dog, so much lazier, so much more weighed upon
with matter, so majestic in repose, so beautiful in effort, is born
with the dramatic means to wholly represent the part. And it is
more pathetic and perhaps more instructive to consider the small
dog in his conscientious and imperfect efforts to outdo Sir Philip
Sidney. For the ideal of the dog is feudal and religious; the
ever-present polytheism, the whip-bearing Olympus of mankind, rules
them on the one hand; on the other, their singular difference of
size and strength among themselves effectually prevents the
appearance of the democratic notion. Or we might more exactly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: staring appearance. The lower eyelids also become slightly wrinkled;
but this wrinkling is not conspicuous, owing to the permanent
transverse furrows on the face.
_Painful emotions and sensations_.--With monkeys the expression of
slight pain, or of any painful emotion, such as grief, vexation, jealousy,
&c., is not easily distinguished from that of moderate anger;
and these states of mind readily and quickly pass into each other.
Grief, however, with some species is certainly exhibited by weeping.
A woman, who sold a monkey to the Zoological Society, believed to have
come from Borneo (_Macacus maurus_ or _M. inornatus_ of Gray), said
that it often cried; and Mr. Bartlett, as well as the keeper Mr. Sutton,
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came much people by
the way of the hill side behind him.
SA2 13:35 And Jonadab said unto the king, Behold, the king's sons come:
as thy servant said, so it is.
SA2 13:36 And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of
speaking, that, behold, the king's sons came, and lifted up their voice
and wept: and the king also and all his servants wept very sore.
SA2 13:37 But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai, the son of Ammihud,
king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day.
SA2 13:38 So Absalom fled, and went to Geshur, and was there three
years.
King James Bible |
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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: learned and experienced as all those may be who have such presumption
and security; yet I do as a child who is being taught the Catechism,
and every morning, and whenever I have time, I read and say, word for
word, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms,
etc. And I must still read and study daily, and yet I cannot master it
as I wish, but must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and am
glad so to remain. And yet these delicate, fastidious fellows would
with one reading promptly be doctors above all doctors, know everything
and be in need of nothing. Well, this, too, is indeed a sure sign that
they despise both their office and the souls of the people, yea, even
God and His Word. They do not have to fall, they are already fallen all
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