| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: in a song, or in repeating anything by rote, he is generally forced to go
back to recover the habitual train of thought: so P. Huber found it was
with a caterpillar, which makes a very complicated hammock; for if he took
a caterpillar which had completed its hammock up to, say, the sixth stage
of construction, and put it into a hammock completed up only to the third
stage, the caterpillar simply re-performed the fourth, fifth, and sixth
stages of construction. If, however, a caterpillar were taken out of a
hammock made up, for instance, to the third stage, and were put into one
finished up to the sixth stage, so that much of its work was already done
for it, far from feeling the benefit of this, it was much embarrassed, and,
in order to complete its hammock, seemed forced to start from the third
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: (A slight hesitation on both their parts.)
HE: (After due consideration) Listen. This is a frightful thing
to ask.
SHE: (Knowing what's coming) After five minutes.
HE: But will youkiss me? Or are you afraid?
SHE: I'm never afraidbut your reasons are so poor.
HE: Rosalind, I really want to kiss you.
SHE: So do I.
(They kissdefinitely and thoroughly.)
HE: (After a breathless second) Well, is your curiosity
satisfied?
This Side of Paradise |
