| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: and her brow remained unruffled. Had the pyramidal, corrugator, and orbicular
muscles been as little obedient to the will, as they are in many persons,
they would have been slightly acted on; and then the central fasciae
of the frontal muscle would have contracted in antagonism, and her eyebrows
would have become oblique, with rectangular furrows on her forehead.
Her countenance would then have expressed still more plainly than it did
a state of dejection, or rather one of grief.
Through steps such as these we can understand how it is, that as soon
as some melancholy thought passes through the brain, there occurs
a just perceptible drawing down of the corners of the mouth,
or a slight raising up of the inner ends of the eyebrows, or both
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: striking for home, he reached the canon where he had left his
horse.
Bullet was quickly and easily found. Duane threw on the saddle
and pack, cinched them tight, and resumed his descent. The
worst was now to come. Bare downward steps in rock, sliding,
weathered slopes, narrow black gullies, a thousand openings in
a maze of broken stone--these Duane had to descend in fast
time, leading a giant of a horse. Bullet cracked the loose
fragments, sent them rolling, slid on the scaly slopes, plunged
down the steps, followed like a faithful dog at Duane's heels.
Hours passed as moments. Duane was equal to his great
The Lone Star Ranger |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: and since a certain season of horror all the signboards pointing
towards it have been taken down. The scenery, judged by an ordinary
aesthetic canon, is more than commonly beautiful; yet there is
no influx of artists or summer tourists. Two centuries ago, when
talk of witch-blood, Satan-worship, and strange forest presences
was not laughed at, it was the custom to give reasons for avoiding
the locality. In our sensible age - since the Dunwich horror of
1928 was hushed up by those who had the town's and the world's
welfare at heart - people shun it without knowing exactly why.
Perhaps one reason - though it cannot apply to uninformed strangers
- is that the natives are now repellently decadent, having gone
The Dunwich Horror |
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 Agesilaus by Xenophon: care of fellow-prisoners also left behind on account of old age; in no
case must they be left to ravening dogs and wolves. In this way he won
the goodwill not only of those who heard tell of these doings but of
the prisoners themselves. And whenever he brought over a city to his
side, he set the citizens free from the harsher service of a bondsman
to his lord, imposing the gentler obedience of a freeman to his ruler.
Indeed, there were fortresses impregnable to assault which he brought
under his power by the subtler force of human kindness.
[10] See Grote, vol. ix. p. 365 foll.
But when, in Phrygia even, the freedom of his march along the flats
was hampered by the cavalry of Pharnabazus, he saw that if he wished
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