| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: is known of the maternal family. After losing his first wife,
the father was twice remarried, and even the third wife has
divorced him. He had a brother who, after going insane and
killing two laborers, committed suicide. His grandmother, and
probably also a cousin, were insane. Two of his sisters were of
a nervous and hysterical type and said to have attacks of
aphonia. A child by his second wife is epileptic. This man
gives us a long account of his own defective heredity and of his
own physical ailments. He does not recognize the fact, however,
that he also is mentally below par. We have seen him on numerous
occasions and known of his great activity in the courts, and have
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: And, growing tired, we turn aside at last,
Remember our secret selves, seek out our towers,
Lay weary hands on the banisters, and climb;
Climbing, each, to his little four-square dream
Of love or lust or beauty or death or crime.
VI.
Over the darkened city, the city of towers,
The city of a thousand gates,
Over the gleaming terraced roofs, the huddled towers,
Over a somnolent whisper of loves and hates,
The slow wind flows, drearily streams and falls,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: me. No, no, I have no time to listen to you. Hush!" And he
pushed her out of the door.
Then he turned to the deputy. "You heard her story, sir," he
said. "Her husband was serving his time in the army; it was you
law-makers who compelled him to do that. And there are women
about the garrisons--you heard how her voice trembled as she said
that? Take my advice, sir, and look up the statistics as to the
prevalence of this disease among our soldiers. Come to some of
my clinics, and let me introduce you to other social types. You
don't care very much about soldiers, perhaps--they belong to the
lower classes, and you think of them as rough men. But let me
|
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 The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: nature. The writer of verse, by virtue of conquering another
difficulty, delights us with a new series of triumphs. He
follows three purposes where his rival followed only two; and
the change is of precisely the same nature as that from
melody to harmony. Or if you prefer to return to the
juggler, behold him now, to the vastly increased enthusiasm
of the spectators, juggling with three oranges instead of
two. Thus it is: added difficulty, added beauty; and the
pattern, with every fresh element, becoming more interesting
in itself.
Yet it must not be thought that verse is simply an addition;
|
