| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: re-draft, as it is ingeniously named, viz., the banker's draft upon
his colleague in Paris.
The fifth is a charge for postage and the legal interest due upon the
amount for the time that it may happen to be absent from the banker's
strong box.
The final item, the exchange, is the object for which the bank exists,
which is to say, for the transmission of sums of money from one place
to another.
Now, sift this account thoroughly, and what do you find? The method of
calculation closely resembles Polichinelle's arithmetic in Lablache's
Neapolitan song, "fifteen and five make twenty-two." The signatures of
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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: nearly naked. It is not at all surprising that the dark-coloured races
should blush, though no change of colour is visible in their skins.
From the principle of inheritance it is not surprising that
persons born blind should blush. We can understand why the young
are much more affected than the old, and women more than men;
and why the opposite sexes especially excite each other's blushes.
It becomes obvious why personal remarks should be particularly liable
to cause blushing, and why the most powerful of all the causes is shyness;
for shyness relates to the presence and opinion of others, and the shy
are always more or less self-conscious. With respect to real shame
from moral delinquencies, we can perceive why it is not guilt,
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
