| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: The terms of the lease were very advantageous, but the retired
situation of the village and a plain comfortable house in good
repair were, I fancy, the greatest inducements. He lived there
quietly for about ten years, seeing very few people and taking no
part in the public life of the province, such as it could be
under an arbitrary bureaucratic tyranny. His character and his
patriotism were above suspicion; but the organisers of the rising
in their frequent journeys up and down the province scrupulously
avoided coming near his house. It was generally felt that the
repose of the old man's last years ought not to be disturbed.
Even such intimates as my paternal grandfather, a comrade-in-arms
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: how extraordinarily nice workmen were, she thought. Why couldn't she have
workmen for her friends rather than the silly boys she danced with and who
came to Sunday night supper? She would get on much better with men like
these.
It's all the fault, she decided, as the tall fellow drew something on the
back of an envelope, something that was to be looped up or left to hang, of
these absurd class distinctions. Well, for her part, she didn't feel them.
Not a bit, not an atom...And now there came the chock-chock of wooden
hammers. Some one whistled, some one sang out, "Are you right there,
matey?" "Matey!" The friendliness of it, the--the--Just to prove how
happy she was, just to show the tall fellow how at home she felt, and how
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