| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: and when that treaty is drawn remember the con-
version of your brother to Russian tobacco."
Rezanov thanked him so warmly, assured him
with so convincing an emphasis that with his fate
in such competent hands his mind was at peace, that
the ardent heart of the Californian exulted; Rez-
anov, with his splendid appearance, and typical of
the highest civilizations of Europe, had descended
upon his narrow sphere with the authority of a
demigod, and he not only thirsted to serve him, but
to fasten him to California with the surest of human
 Rezanov |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: is not entirely aside from the matter."
"If you can find anything for your purpose, Mr. Pyncheon," said
the carpenter, "in a man's natural resentment for the wrongs done
to his blood, you are welcome to it."
"I take you at your word, Goodman Maule," said the owner of
the Seven Gables, with a smile, "and will proceed to suggest a
mode in which your hereditary resentments--justifiable or
otherwise--may have had a bearing on my affairs. You have
heard, I suppose, that the Pyncheon family, ever since my
grandfather's days, have been prosecuting a still unsettled
claim to a very large extent of territory at the Eastward?"
 House of Seven Gables |