| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: my thoughts. It is strange how good can be done, not at the time when it
is intended, but afterward; and you have done this good to me. I say over
your words, "Contentment with Renunciation," and believe that at this
last hour I have gained something like what you would wish me to feel.
For I do not think that I desire it otherwise now. My life would never
have been of service, I am afraid. You am the last person in this world
who has spoken serious words to me, and I want you to know that now at
length I value the peace of Santa Ysabel as I could never have done but
for seeing your wisdom and goodness. You spoke of a new organ for your
church. Take the gold-dust that will reach you with this, and do what you
will with it. Let me at least in dying have helped some one. And since
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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 Human Drift by Jack London: attached to smokestack guys and rigging, were huge rope-nettings,
hung there for the purpose of breaking the force of the seas and
so saving our mess-room doors. But the doors were smashed and the
mess-rooms washed out just the same. And yet, out of it all,
arose but the one feeling, namely, of monotony.
In contrast with the foregoing, about the liveliest eight days of
my life were spent in a small boat on the west coast of Korea.
Never mind why I was thus voyaging up the Yellow Sea during the
month of February in below-zero weather. The point is that I was
in an open boat, a sampan, on a rocky coast where there were no
light-houses and where the tides ran from thirty to sixty feet.
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