| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: instead of fireplaces we will distribute the toys to the children
without the need of using a chimney."
"That seems to me a good plan," replied Santa Claus, well pleased at
having solved the problem. "We will try it next year."
That was how the Fairy, the Pixie, the Knook and the Ryl all rode in
the sledge with their master the following Christmas Eve; and they had
no trouble at all in entering the new-fashioned houses and leaving
toys for the children that lived in them.
And their deft services not only relieved Santa Claus of much labor,
but enabled him to complete his own work more quickly than usual, so
that the merry party found themselves at home with an empty sledge a
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
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: inhabit the hot, equable, and damp parts of South America,
the skin apparently does not answer to mental excitement so
readily as with the natives of the northern and southern parts
of the continent, who have long been exposed to great vicissitudes
of climate; for Humboldt quotes without a protest the sneer
of the Spaniard, "How can those be trusted, who know not how to
blush?"[14] Von Spix and Martius, in speaking of the aborigines
of Brazil, assert that they cannot properly be said to blush;
"it was only after long intercourse with the whites, and after
receiving some education, that we perceived in the Indians
a change of colour expressive of the emotions of their minds."[15]
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
