| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: "A fine forehead!" said she to herself, looking at the head of every
man seated at the table; "I do not see one fine one.--Monsieur de
Soulas' is too prominent; Monsieur de Grancey's is fine, but he is
seventy, and has no hair, it is impossible to see where his forehead
ends."
"What is the matter, Rosalie; you are eating nothing?"
"I am not hungry, mamma," said she. "A prelate's hands----" she went
on to herself. "I cannot remember our handsome Archbishop's hands,
though he confirmed me."
Finally, in the midst of her coming and going in the labyrinth of her
meditations, she remembered a lighted window she had seen from her
Albert Savarus |
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: in part related to imaginary objects, and in part to imaginary
sensorial impressions. In this proposition lies the key
to the comprehension of all expressive muscular movements."
(s. 25) Again, "Expressive movements manifest themselves
chiefly in the numerous and mobile muscles of the face,
partly because the nerves by which they are set into motion originate
in the most immediate vicinity of the mind-organ, but partly
also because these muscles serve to support the organs of sense."
(s. 26.) If Dr. Piderit had studied Sir C. Bell's work,
he would probably not have said (s. 101) that violent
laughter causes a frown from partaking of the nature of pain;
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
