| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: the old one stripes three times a day and hay once; give the next (who
was the servant-maid) stripes once a day and hay three times; and give
the youngest (who was the beautiful lady) hay three times a day and no
stripes': for he could not find it in his heart to have her beaten.
After this he went back to the castle, where he found everything he
wanted.
Some days after, the miller came to him and told him that the old ass
was dead; 'The other two,' said he, 'are alive and eat, but are so
sorrowful that they cannot last long.' Then the huntsman pitied them,
and told the miller to drive them back to him, and when they came, he
gave them some of the good salad to eat. And the beautiful young lady
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: the concussion had incontinently turned two solid globes into one
vast mass of incandescence. Round the world that day, two hours
before the dawn, went the pallid great white star, fading only as
it sank westward and the sun mounted above it. Everywhere men
marvelled at it, but of all those who saw it none could have
marvelled more than those sailors, habitual watchers of the stars,
who far away at sea had heard nothing of its advent and saw it now
rise like a pigmy moon and climb zenithward and hang overhead and
sink westward with the passing of the night.
And when next it rose over Europe everywhere were crowds of
watchers on hilly slopes, on house-roofs, in open spaces, staring
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: the platysma was not contracted.
Mr. J. Wood, who has studied with such care the muscles of the human body,
as shown by his various publications, has often seen the platysma
contracted in vomiting, nausea, and disgust; also in children and
adults under the influence of rage,--for instance, in Irishwomen,
quarrelling and brawling together with angry gesticulations.
This may possibly have been due to their high and angry tones;
for I know a lady, an excellent musician, who, in singing certain
high notes, always contracts her platysma. So does a young man,
as I have observed, in sounding certain notes on the flute.
Mr. J. Wood informs me that he has found the platysma best
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: GLOSTER.
[Aside to CARDINAL.] Cardinal, I am with you.
KING.
Why, how now, uncle Gloster!
GLOSTER.
Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord.--
[Aside to Cardinal.] Now, by God's mother, priest,
I'll shave your crown for this,
Or all my fence shall fail.
CARDINAL.
[Aside to Gloster.] Medice, teipsum--
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