| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and then his lips.
"What a noble and unselfish love yours has been,"
she murmured. "You have even tried to hide it that
my position might be the easier to bear, and now that
it may be too late I learn that I love you--that I
have always loved you. Oh, Bulan, my Bulan, what a cruel
fate that permitted us to find one another only to die together!"
16
SING SPEAKS
For a week Professor Maxon with von Horn and Sing
sought for Virginia. They could get no help from
The Monster Men |
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: case may not be of the least use. Such habitual movements are often,
or generally inherited; and they then differ but little from reflex actions.
When we treat of the special expressions of man, the latter part of our
first Principle, as given at the commencement of this chapter, will be
seen to hold good; namely, that when movements, associated through habit
with certain states of the mind, are partially repressed by the will,
the strictly involuntary muscles, as well as those which are least
under the separate control of the will, are liable still to act;
and their action is often highly expressive. Conversely, when the will
is temporarily or permanently weakened, the voluntary muscles fail
before the involuntary. It is a fact familiar to pathologists,
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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: the broad breast of the Yukon. Here was the tug. When the river
froze in the fall, a mile of open water had been left between two
mighty jams. This had but recently crusted, the current being
swift, and now it was as level, hard, and slippery as a dance
floor. The instant they struck this glare ice Harrington came to
his knees, holding precariously on with one hand, his whip singing
fiercely among his dogs and fearsome abjurations hurtling about
their ears. The teams spread out on the smooth surface, each
straining to the uttermost. But few men in the North could lift
their dogs as did Jack Harrington. At once he began to pull
ahead, and Louis Savoy, taking the pace, hung on desperately, his
|
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 Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: "Half the staff are feeling all over the inside of our cab, and
the porter keeps asking me if I'm sure the cat was put in at the
station. Is this some of your doing?"
"Possibly some idle banter-"
"I knew it," said Daphne. If this is how you begin, we shan't
get out of Munich alive."
Why we had chosen Munich is not very easy to tell. Of course,
we ought to have gone to Biarritz and taken the car, but they
wouldn't have that. Everybody had wanted to go to a different
place. Berry's choice was Minsk, because, he said, he wanted to
rub up his Hebrew. Such a suggestion is characteristic of Berry.
The Brother of Daphne |
