| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: months since I put that paper in your way--and yet you've done
nothing, you've said nothing, you've made no sign, you've lived
alongside of me as if it had made no difference--no difference in
either of our lives. What are you made of, I wonder? Don't you
see the hideous ignominy of it? Don't you see how you've shared
in my disgrace? Or haven't you any sense of shame?"
He preserved sufficient lucidity, as the words poured from him, to
see how fatally they invited her derision; but something told him
they had both passed beyond the phase of obvious retaliations, and
that if any chord in her responded it would not be that of scorn.
He was right. She rose slowly and moved toward him.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: On her legs are four feet, on her feet are eight toes.
Her tail is behind on the end of her back,
And her head is in front on the end of her neck.
The Chinese nursery is well provided with rhymes
pertaining to certain portions of the body. They have rhymes
to repeat when they play with the five fingers, and others
when they pull the toes; rhymes when they take hold of
the knee and expect the child to refrain from laughing, no
matter how much its knee is tickled; rhymes which correspond
to all our face and sense; rhymes where the forehead
|
