| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: They helped him to the house, and he immediately went into a
convulsion. From this he passed into a raging fever. Pierre took
the buggy and drove posthaste to town for a doctor.
The doctor's opinion was evidently serious, but his remarks were
non-committal.
"Keep him in this room. Give him ten drops of this in water every
hour. One of these powders if he becomes violent. One of you must
stay with him all the time. Only one, you understand. The rest
keep away. I will come back in the morning."
In the morning the doctor's face was yet more grave. He examined
the patient carefully. Then he turned to Jean, who had acted as
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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 Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: Truth Pond.
When he came up the donkey head had disappeared, and the shaggy man's
own shaggy head was in its place, with the water dripping in little
streams from his shaggy whiskers. He scrambled ashore and shook
himself to get off some of the wet, and then leaned over the pool to
look admiringly at his reflected face.
"I may not be strictly beautiful, even now," he said to his
companions, who watched him with smiling faces; "but I'm so much
handsomer than any donkey that I feel as proud as I can be."
"You're all right, Shaggy Man," declared Dorothy. "And Button-Bright
is all right, too. So let's thank the Truth Pond for being so nice,
The Road to Oz |
