| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: Shakespearian gaiety. Take these away and Shakespear is no longer
Shakespear: all the bite, the impetus, the strength, the grim delight
in his own power of looking terrible facts in the face with a chuckle,
is gone; and you have nothing left but that most depressing of all
things: a victim. Now who can think of Shakespear as a man with a
grievance? Even in that most thoroughgoing and inspired of all
Shakespear's loves: his love of music (which Mr Harris has been the
first to appreciate at anything like its value), there is a dash of
mockery. "Spit in the hole, man; and tune again." "Divine air! Now
is his soul ravished. Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale
the souls out of men's bodies?" "An he had been a dog that should
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: very luxurious and easy movement on its springs, turned and
began to drive towards the west.
Somerset, as I have written, was not unprepared; it had long
been his particular pleasure to rehearse his conduct in the
most unlikely situations; and this, among others, of the
patrician ravisher, was one he had familiarly studied.
Strange as it may seem, however, he could find no apposite
remark; and as the lady, on her side, vouchsafed no further
sign, they continued to drive in silence through the streets.
Except for alternate flashes from the passing lamps, the
carriage was plunged in obscurity; and beyond the fact that
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