The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: "The heart that is soonest awake to the flowers
Is also the first to be touched by the fun."
The Far Oriental well exemplifies this fact. His art, wherever fun
is possible, fairly bubbles over with laughter. From the oldest
masters down to Hokusai, it is constantly welling up in the drollest
conceits. It is of all descriptions, too. Now it lurks in merry
ambush, like the faint suggestion of a smile on an otherwise serious
face, so subtile that the observer is left wondering whether the
artist could have meant what seems more like one's own ingenious
discovery; now it breaks out into the broadest of grins, absurd
juxtapositions of singularly happy incongruities. For Hokusai's
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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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James: and I said the same."
I thought a moment. "You were too sweet, too--I can hear you all.
But nonetheless, between Miles and me, it's now all out."
"All out?" My companion stared. "But what, miss?"
"Everything. It doesn't matter. I've made up my mind.
I came home, my dear," I went on, "for a talk with Miss Jessel."
I had by this time formed the habit of having Mrs. Grose
literally well in hand in advance of my sounding that note;
so that even now, as she bravely blinked under the signal
of my word, I could keep her comparatively firm. "A talk!
Do you mean she spoke?"
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