| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Both bulk of water and the subtle air
By no means can retard each thing alike,
But give more quick before the heavier weight;
But contrariwise the empty void cannot,
On any side, at any time, to aught
Oppose resistance, but will ever yield,
True to its bent of nature. Wherefore all,
With equal speed, though equal not in weight,
Must rush, borne downward through the still inane.
Thus ne'er at all have heavier from above
Been swift to strike the lighter, gendering strokes
 Of The Nature of Things |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: across the land, all hope of regaining my liberty would be gone.
True, I might learn where this Master of the World hid himself. I
might learn what no one had yet been able to discover, assuming
always that he did not dispose of me at one time or another--and what
I expected his "disposal" would be, is easily comprehended.
I knew the northeast end of Lake Erie well, having often visited that
section of New York State which extends westward from Albany to
Buffalo. Three years before, a police mission had led me to explore
carefully the shores of the Niagara River, both above and below the.
cataract and its Suspension Bridge. I had visited the two principal
islands between Buffalo and the little city of Niagara Falls, I had
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