| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: about himself. You are attractive, very attractive.'
'It is not me,' said Herrick; 'no one can like me. If you knew
how I despised myself--and why!' His voice rang out in the
quiet graveyard.
'I knew that you despised yourself,' said Attwater. 'I saw the
blood come into your face today when you remembered Oxford.
And I could have blushed for you myself, to see a man, a
gentleman, with these two vulgar wolves.'
Herrick faced him with a thrill. 'Wolves?' he repeated.
'I said wolves and vulgar wolves,' said Attwater. 'Do you
know that today, when I came on board, I trembled?'
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: On returning from his trip through the southern departments, the
illustrious Gaudissart occupied the coupe of a diligence, where he met
a young man to whom, as they journeyed between Angouleme and Paris, he
deigned to explain the enigmas of life, taking him, apparently, for an
infant.
As they passed Vouvray the young man exclaimed, "What a fine site!"
"Yes, Monsieur," said Gaudissart, "but not habitable on account of the
people. You get into duels every day. Why, it is not three months
since I fought one just there," pointing to the bridge of La Cise,
"with a damned dyer; but I made an end of him,--he bit the dust!"
ADDENDUM
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: expressions of the wild Atnah and Espyox tribes on the Nasse River,
in North-Western America. Mr. Washington Matthews Assistant-Surgeon
in the United States Army, also observed with special care
(after having seen my queries, as printed in the `Smithsonian Report')
some of the wildest tribes in the Western parts of the United States,
namely, the Tetons, Grosventres, Mandans, and Assinaboines;
and his answers have proved of the highest value.
Lastly, besides these special sources of information, I have collected
some few facts incidentally given in books of travels.--------
As I shall often have to refer, more especially in the latter part
of this volume, to the muscles of the human face, I have had a diagram
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
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 What is Man? by Mark Twain: familiar with the laws, and the law-courts, and law-proceedings,
and lawyer-talk, and lawyer-ways--and if Shakespeare was
possessed of the infinitely divided star-dust that constituted
this vast wealth, HOW did he get it, and WHERE and WHEN?
"From books."
From books! That was always the idea. I answered as my
readings of the champions of my side of the great controversy had
taught me to answer: that a man can't handle glibly and easily
and comfortably and successfully the argot of a trade at which he
has not personally served. He will make mistakes; he will not,
and cannot, get the trade-phrasings precisely and exactly right;
What is Man? |
