| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: for a few days, as your only chance of safety. And you asked me
what were my motives. My motives! If you don't see them they are
not for you to know."
And these men who, two hours before had never seen each other,
stood for a moment close together, antagonistic, as if they had
been life-long enemies, one short, dapper and glaring upward, the
other towering heavily, and looking down in contempt and anger.
Mr. d'Alcacer, without taking his eyes off them, bent low over
the deck chair.
"Have you ever seen a man dashing himself at a stone wall?" he
asked, confidentially.
 The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: Rogers said to me one day: "I have learnt more from men that from
BOOKS, and when I used to be in the society of Fox and other great
men of that period, and they would sometimes say 'I have always
thought so and so,' then I have opened my ears and listened, for I
said to myself, now I shall get at the treasured results of the
experience of these great men." This little saying of Mr. Rogers
expresses precisely my own feelings in the society of the venerable
and distinguished here. With us society is left more to the
crudities of the young than in England. The young may be
interesting and promise much, but they are still CRUDE. The
elements, however fine, are not yet completely assimilated and
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