| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: then? Upon my word!--you come here and suggest to me
that I made promises to you which I've broken!"
Plowden looked hard at him, as he turned over in his mind
the purport of these words. "I see what you are doing,"
he said then. "You turn over to me 100,000 vendor's
deferred shares. Thanks! I have already 1,000 of them.
I keep them in the same box with my father's Confederate bonds."
"What the hell do you mean?" Thorpe broke in with
explosive warmth, lifting himself in his chair.
"Oh, come now, Thorpe," Plowden retorted, "let's get
this talk on an intelligent, common-sense footing."
The Market-Place |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: fell. Lingard was unarmed. To the end of his life he remained
incorrigibly reckless in that respect, explaining that he was
"much too quick tempered to carry firearms on the chance of a
row. And if put to it," he argued, "I can make shift to kill a
man with my fist anyhow; and then--don't ye see--you know what
you're doing and are not so apt to start a trouble from sheer
temper or funk--see?"
In this case he did his best to kill a man with a blow from the
shoulder and catching up another by the middle flung him at the
naked, wild crowd. "He hurled men about as the wind hurls broken
boughs.
The Rescue |
