| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: It was a rather high bed place with a set of drawers underneath.
This amazing swimmer really needed the lift I gave him by seizing his leg.
He tumbled in, rolled over on his back, and flung one arm across his eyes.
And then, with his face nearly hidden, he must have looked exactly as I used
to look in that bed. I gazed upon my other self for a while before drawing
across carefully the two green serge curtains which ran on a brass rod.
I thought for a moment of pinning them together for greater safety,
but I sat down on the couch, and once there I felt unwilling to rise
and hunt for a pin. I would do it in a moment. I was extremely tired,
in a peculiarly intimate way, by the strain of stealthiness,
by the effort of whispering and the general secrecy of this excitement.
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: Like his companions the captain was dressed in sea-clothes covered by
an oil-skin coat, and with a woolen cap which could be pulled down to
cover his head entirely, when he so desired.
Need I add that the captain of the "Terror" was the other of the two
men, who had watched my house in Long street. Moreover, if I
recognized him, he also must recognize me as chief-inspector Strock,
to whom had been assigned the task of penetrating the Great Eyrie.
I looked at him curiously. On his part, while he did not seek to
avoid my eyes, he showed at least a singular indifference to the fact
that he had a stranger on board.
As I watched him, the idea came to me, a suggestion which I had not
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