| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: THE UMBRELLA MAN
THE UMBRELLA MAN
IT was an insolent day. There are days which,
to imaginative minds, at least, possess strangely
human qualities. Their atmospheres predispose peo-
ple to crime or virtue, to the calm of good will, to
sneaking vice, or fierce, unprovoked aggression. The
day was of the last description. A beast, or a human
being in whose veins coursed undisciplined blood,
might, as involuntarily as the boughs of trees lash
before storms, perform wild and wicked deeds after
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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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James: in the whole business that he had known such a lapse?
The first, the very first: I found it a splendid portent.
It made him anxious, though he watched himself; he had been
anxious all day and, even while in his usual sweet little
manner he sat at table, had needed all his small strange
genius to give it a gloss. When he at last turned round
to meet me, it was almost as if this genius had succumbed.
"Well, I think I'm glad Bly agrees with ME!"
"You would certainly seem to have seen, these twenty-four hours,
a good deal more of it than for some time before. I hope,"
I went on bravely, "that you've been enjoying yourself."
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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 Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: The purpose of this contraction of the nostrils by children having
bad colds, or whilst crying, seems to be to cheek the downward
flow of the mucus and tears, and to prevent these fluids
spreading over the upper lip.
After a prolonged and severe screaming-fit, the scalp, face, and eyes
are reddened, owing to the return of the blood from the head having
been impeded by the violent expiratory efforts; but the redness of
the stimulated eyes is chiefly due to the copious effusion of tears.
The various muscles of the face which have been strongly contracted,
still twitch a little, and the upper lip is still slightly drawn up or
everted,[7] with the corners of the mouth still a little drawn downwards.
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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: behind a long row of rosebushes that screened him from the
Countess's terrace, came to a little summer-house where the two
young ladies had appointed to meet him that day.
A pleasant half-hour or so was passed, and then it was time for
Myles to go. He lingered for a while before he took his final
leave, leaning against the door-post, and laughingly telling how
he and some of his brother squires had made a figure of straw
dressed in men's clothes, and had played a trick with it one
night upon a watchman against whom they bore a grudge.
The young ladies were listening with laughing faces, when
suddenly, as Myles looked, he saw the smile vanish from Lady
Men of Iron |
