| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: the deep inspirations of crying-fits before an operation.
Now, whenever a person starts at any sudden sight or sound,
he instantaneously draws a deep breath; and thus the contraction
of the platysma may possibly have become associated with the sense
of fear. But there is, I believe, a more efficient relation.
The first sensation of fear, or the imagination of something dreadful,
commonly excites a shudder. I have caught myself giving
a little involuntary shudder at a painful thought, and I
distinctly perceived that my platysma contracted; so it does if I
simulate a shudder. I have asked others to act in this manner;
and in some the muscle contracted, but not in others.
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: thing, and she threatened convulsions from the beginning, but we
both knew that it was abnormal not to love her a great deal, more
than life, immediately and increasingly; and we applied ourselves
honestly to do it, with the thermometer at a hundred and two, and
the nurse leaving at the end of a fortnight because she discovered
that I had only six of everything for the table. To find out a
husband's virtues, you must marry a poor man. The regiment was
under-officered as usual, and John had to take parade at daylight
quite three times a week; but he walked up and down the veranda with
Cecily constantly till two in the morning, when a little coolness
came. I usually lay awake the rest of the night in fear that a
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: Through woodland and deep grove, sinks wearied out
On the green sedge beside a stream, love-lorn,
Nor marks the gathering night that calls her home-
As pines that heifer, with such love as hers
May Daphnis pine, and I not care to heal.
"Draw from the town, my songs, draw Daphnis home.
These relics once, dear pledges of himself,
The traitor left me, which, O earth, to thee
Here on this very threshold I commit-
Pledges that bind him to redeem the debt.
"Draw from the town, my songs, draw Daphnis home.
|
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 Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: So poor Abdallah was beaten with rods until he confessed where he
had hidden his money; then the Wise Judge handed fifty sequins to
Ali and kept twenty himself for his decision, and all went their
way praising his justice and judgment.
That is to say, all but poor Abdallah; he went to his home
weeping and wailing, and with every one pointing the finger of
scorn at him. He was just as poor as ever, and his back was sore
with the beating that he had suffered. All that night he
continued to weep and wail, and when the morning had come he was
weeping and wailing still.
Now it chanced that a wise man passed that way, and hearing his
|
