| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: the consequences of their errors.
The great privilege of the Americans does not simply consist
in their being more enlightened than other nations, but in their
being able to repair the faults they may commit. To which it
must be added, that a democracy cannot derive substantial benefit
from past experience, unless it be arrived at a certain pitch of
knowledge and civilization. There are tribes and peoples whose
education has been so vicious, and whose character presents so
strange a mixture of passion, of ignorance, and of erroneous
notions upon all subjects, that they are unable to discern the
causes of their own wretchedness, and they fall a sacrifice to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: So it was. We were in the room where we had imprisoned the
Inca king and where we ourselves had been imprisoned with Desiree.
"She said her room was to the right of this," whispered Harry
excitedly. "What luck! If only--"
He left the sentence unfinished, but I understood his fear.
And with me there was even no doubt; I had little hope of finding
Desiree, and was sorry, for Harry's sake, that we had been so far
successful.
Again we sought the passage. A little farther on it was
crossed by another, running at right angles in both directions.
But to the right there was nothing but darkness, and we turned to
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