| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: go-between;[89] and please to answer every question without
hesitating; let us know the points to which we mutually assent.[90]
Are you agreed to that?
[88] Or, "define in common." Cf. "Mem." IV. vi. 15.
[89] Or, "man-praiser." Cf. "The Manx Witch," p. 47 (T. E. Brown),
"And Harry, more like a dooiney-molla For Jack, lak helpin him to
woo." See, too, Mr. Hall Caine's "Manxman," p. 73.
[90] See Plat. "Rep." 342 D, for a specimen of Socratic procedure,
"from one point of agreement to another."
The Company, in chorus. Without a doubt (they answered, and the
formula, once started, was every time repeated by the company, full
The Symposium |
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: to infants, has become finely developed from the earliest days.
_High spirits, cheerfulness_.--A man in high spirits,
though he may not actually smile, commonly exhibits some
tendency to the retraction of the corners of his mouth.
From the excitement of pleasure, the circulation becomes more rapid;
the eyes are bright, and the colour of the face rises.
The brain, being stimulated by the increased flow of blood,
reacts on the mental powers; lively ideas pass still more rapidly
through the mind, and the affections are warmed. I heard a child,
a little under four years old, when asked what was meant by being
in good spirits, answer, "It is laughing, talking, and kissing."
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: which there was not the slightest occasion for alarm.
"But he says the strangest things," the wife put in.
"He has been quite delirious at times."
"That means only that his brain is taking a rest as well
as his body," remarked Ledsmar. "That is Nature's way
of securing an equilibrium of repose--of recuperation.
He will come out of it with his mind all the fresher
and clearer."
"I don't believe he knows shucks!" was Alice's comment
when she closed the street door upon Dr. Ledsmar.
"Anybody could have come in and looked at a sick man
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
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 Walden by Henry David Thoreau: dogwood grow, the red alderberry glows like eyes of imps, the
waxwork grooves and crushes the hardest woods in its folds, and the
wild holly berries make the beholder forget his home with their
beauty, and he is dazzled and tempted by nameless other wild
forbidden fruits, too fair for mortal taste. Instead of calling on
some scholar, I paid many a visit to particular trees, of kinds
which are rare in this neighborhood, standing far away in the middle
of some pasture, or in the depths of a wood or swamp, or on a
hilltop; such as the black birch, of which we have some handsome
specimens two feet in diameter; its cousin, the yellow birch, with
its loose golden vest, perfumed like the first; the beech, which has
Walden |
