| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: Sophie had fainted.
"I must have been hungry," she mused over the charcoal fire in
her little room, "I must have been hungry;" and she smiled a wan
smile, and busied herself getting her evening meal of coffee and
bread and ham.
If one were given to pity, the first thought that would rush to
one's lips at sight of Miss Sophie would have been, "Poor little
woman!" She had come among the bareness and sordidness of this
neighbourhood five years ago, robed in crape, and crying with
great sobs that seemed to shake the vitality out of her.
Perfectly silent, too, she was about her former life; but for all
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: "I think so. I have heard so. It is held on Sunday."
(A REFLECTIVE PAUSE, LASTING SOME MOMENTS.) Then:
"When we die, Sage-Brush, do we go to heaven and dwell with man?"
"My father thought not. He believed we do not have to go there
unless we deserve it."
PART II - IN SPAIN
CHAPTER XIII - GENERAL ALISON TO HIS MOTHER
It was a prodigious trip, but delightful, of course, through the
Rockies and the Black Hills and the mighty sweep of the Great
Plains to civilization and the Missouri border - where the
railroading began and the delightfulness ended. But no one is the
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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 The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: plenty to eat. Almost every Russian worker retains in some
form or other connection with a village, where, if he returns,
he will not be an entire stranger, but at worst a poor relation,
and quite possibly an honored guest. It is not surprising that
many thousands have "returned to the land" in this way.
Further, if a workman retains his connection, both with a
distant village and with a town, he can keep himself and his
family fat and prosperous by ceasing to be a workman, and,
instead, traveling on the buffers or the roof of a railway
wagon, and bringing back with him sacks of flour and
potatoes for sale in the town at fantastic prices. Thereby he
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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 Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: or their complete relaxation. And now, whenever the emotion of fear is
strongly felt, though it may not lead to any exertion, the same results
tend to reappear, through the force of inheritance and association.
Nevertheless, it is probable that many or most of the above
symptoms of terror, such as the beating of the heart,
the trembling of the muscles, cold perspiration, &c., are in large
part directly due to the disturbed or interrupted transmission
of nerve-force from the cerebro-spinal system to various parts
of the body, owing to the mind being so powerfully affected.
We may confidently look to this cause, independently of habit
and association, in such cases as the modified secretions of
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
