| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: contradictory speculations and judgments disputing the possession
of his will. It was not what Belarab would either suddenly do or
leisurely determine upon that Lingard was afraid of. The danger
was that in his taciturn hesitation, which had something
hopelessly godlike in its remote calmness, the man would do
nothing and leave his white friend face to face with unruly
impulses against which Lingard had no means of action but force
which he dared not use since it would mean the destruction of his
plans and the downfall of his hopes; and worse still would wear
an aspect of treachery to Hassim and Immada, those fugitives whom
he had snatched away from the jaws of death on a night of storm
The Rescue |
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: spasms affect the respiratory muscles, and he feels as if something,
the so-called _globus hystericus_, was rising in his throat.
These spasmodic movements are clearly allied to the sobbing
of children, and are remnants of those severer spasms which occur
when a person is said to choke from excessive grief.[2]
[1] The above descriptive remarks are taken in part from my own observations,
but chiefly from Gratiolet (`De la Physionomie,' pp. 53, 337; on Sighing,
232), who has well treated this whole subject. See, also, Huschke. `Mimices
et Physiognomices, Fragmentum Physiologicitim,' 1821, p. 21. On the dulness
of the eyes, Dr. Piderit, `Mimik und Physiognomik,' 1867, s. 65.
[2] On the action of grief on the organs of respiration,
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
