| 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: it is scarcely possible to point out any difference between
the tear-stained face of a person after a paroxysm of excessive
laughter and after a bitter crying-fit.[15] It is probably
due to the close similarity of the spasmodic movements caused
by these widely different emotions that hysteric patients
alternately cry and laugh with violence, and that young children
sometimes pass suddenly from the one to the other state.
Mr. Swinhoe informs me that he has often seen the Chinese,
when suffering from deep grief, burst out into hysterical
fits of laughter.
[15] Sir T. Reynolds remarks (`Discourses,' xii. p. 100), it is curious
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 The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: They were not foolishly done. Verily, you have had your reward
for them.
Would you be paid twice?"
"No," cried the man, with deepening dismay, "I dare not claim
that.
I acknowledge that I considered my own interest too much. But
surely
not altogether. You have said that these things were not
foolishly done.
They accomplished some good in the world. Does not that count
for something?"
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the Pumpkinhead, with a sigh. "An old crow
once told me I was very fascinating, but of
course the bird might have been mistaken. Yet
I have noticed that the crows usually avoid the
Scarecrow, who is a very honest fellow, in his
way, but stuffed. I am not stuffed, you will
observe; my body is good solid hickory."
"I adore stuffing," said the Patchwork Girl.
"Well, as for that, my head is stuffed with
pumpkin-seeds," declared Jack. "I use them for
brains, and when they are fresh I am intellectual.
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
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 Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: they struck up a firm and lasting friendship, and established a
correspondence which lasted almost till Fet's death.
It was only during the last years of Fet's life, when my
father was entirely absorbed in his new ideas, which were so at
variance with Afanásyi Afanásyevitch's whole
philosophy of life, that they became estranged and met more rarely.
It was at Fet's, at Stepánovka, that my father and
Turgénieff quarreled.
Before the railway was made, when people still had to drive,
Fet, on his way into Moscow, always used to turn in at
Yásnaya Polyána to see my father, and these visits
|
