The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: gods at daybreak. They were walking across a plain.
MYRRHINA. Once as I was passing through the market place I heard a
sophist from Cilicia say that there is only one God. He said it
before many people.
FIRST MAN. That cannot be true. We have ourselves seen many,
though we are but common men and of no account. When I saw them I
hid myself in a bush. They did me no harm.
* * * * *
MYRRHINA. Tell me more about the beautiful young hermit. Talk to
me about the beautiful young hermit who will not look on the face of
woman. What is the story of his days? What mode of life has he?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: with pique in women, and had found it the most manageable of
weaknesses. It was an element of spasmodic conscience than he
saw here, and it troubled him.
Something told him that she had said to herself: "I will be
married, and thus do my duty to Hope. Other girls marry
persons whom they do not love, and it helps them to forget.
Perhaps it will help me. This is a good man, they say, and I
think he loves me."
"Think?" John Lambert had adored her when she had passed by
him without looking at him; and now when the thought came over
him that she would be his wife, he became stupid with bliss.
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