| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: that at the time of which I write I was not yet of age; but young
blood is nimble, and moreover mine was half Spanish, and made a man
of me when many a pure-bred Englishman is still nothing but a boy.
For the blood and the sun that ripens it have much to do with such
matters, as I have seen often enough among the Indian peoples of
Anahuac, who at the age of fifteen will take to themselves a bride
of twelve. At the least it is certain that when I was eighteen
years of age I was old enough to fall in love after such fashion
that I never fell out of it again altogether, although the history
of my life may seem to give me the lie when I say so. But I take
it that a man may love several women and yet love one of them the
 Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: in conversation with a mother, was absurdly indiscreet.
Hardly a maternal heart within the four seas could
in such circumstances, have helped being irritated at
that ill-timed betrayal of feeling for a new woman.
"You are blinded, Clym," she said warmly. "It was
a bad day for you when you first set eyes on her.
And your scheme is merely a castle in the air built
on purpose to justify this folly which has seized you,
and to salve your conscience on the irrational situation
you are in."
"Mother, that's not true," he firmly answered.
 Return of the Native |