| 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: the strength of the pyramidal muscles. In both these cases the eyebrows
and forehead were acted on under the influence of a strong light,
in precisely the same manner, in every characteristic detail,
as under the influence of grief or anxiety.
Duchenne states that the pyramidal muscle of the nose is less under
the control of the will than are the other muscles round the eyes.
He remarks that the young man who could so well act on his grief-muscles,
as well as on most of his other facial muscles, could not contract the
pyramidals.[5] This power, however, no doubt differs in different persons.
The pyramidal muscle serves to draw down the skin of the forehead
between the eyebrows, together with their inner extremities.
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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: any certain and evident reasons, I did not doubt but that such must have been
the rule of their investigations. I resolved to commence, therefore, with the
examination of the simplest objects, not anticipating, however, from this any
other advantage than that to be found in accustoming my mind to the love and
nourishment of truth, and to a distaste for all such reasonings as were
unsound. But I had no intention on that account of attempting to master all
the particular sciences commonly denominated mathematics: but observing that,
however different their objects, they all agree in considering only the
various relations or proportions subsisting among those objects, I thought
it best for my purpose to consider these proportions in the most general
form possible, without referring them to any objects in particular, except
Reason Discourse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: a patron, in a blase' way, of the prize-ring; a man who sucked
the essence out of a science or philosophy in an indifferent,
gentlemanly way; who took Kant, Novalis, Humboldt, for what they
were worth in his own scales; accepting all, despising nothing,
in heaven, earth, or hell, but one-idead men; with a temper
yielding and brilliant as summer water, until his Self was
touched, when it was ice, though brilliant still. Such men are
not rare in the States.
As he knocked the ashes from his cigar, Wolfe caught with a
quick pleasure the contour of the white hand, the blood-glow of
a red ring he wore. His voice, too, and that of Kirby's,
Life in the Iron-Mills |
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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: without caring whether she breaks her neck or no, she's not to be mistaken;
and this being the case I have come to a conclusion: that it is wrong to so
torture a fellow-creature any longer; and I won't be the inhuman wretch to do
it, cost what it may!"
"What--you'll let her go? And with her lover?"
"Whom with is her matter. I shall let her go; with him certainly,
if she wishes. I know I may be wrong--I know I can't logically,
or religiously, defend my concession to such a wish of hers,
or harmonize it with the doctrines I was brought up in.
Only I know one thing: something within me tells me I am doing
wrong in refusing her. I, like other men, profess to hold
Jude the Obscure |
