| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: and he kissed the cold red of the mouth, and toyed with the wet
amber of the hair. He flung himself down beside it on the sand,
weeping as one trembling with joy, and in his brown arms he held it
to his breast. Cold were the lips, yet he kissed them. Salt was
the honey of the hair, yet he tasted it with a bitter joy. He
kissed the closed eyelids, and the wild spray that lay upon their
cups was less salt than his tears.
And to the dead thing he made confession. Into the shells of its
ears he poured the harsh wine of his tale. He put the little hands
round his neck, and with his fingers he touched the thin reed of
the throat. Bitter, bitter was his joy, and full of strange
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: both sides of the question; and those who have been long good advocates
are not afterwards on that account the better judges.
As for the advantage that others would derive from the communication of my
thoughts, it could not be very great; because I have not yet so far
prosecuted them as that much does not remain to be added before they can
be applied to practice. And I think I may say without vanity, that if
there is any one who can carry them out that length, it must be myself
rather than another: not that there may not be in the world many minds
incomparably superior to mine, but because one cannot so well seize a
thing and make it one's own, when it has been learned from another, as
when one has himself discovered it. And so true is this of the present
Reason Discourse |
