| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: sense of novelty and strangeness, time to know them! But as soon as one
paused to part the petals, to discover the under-side of the leaf, along
came Life and one was swept away. And, lying in her cane chair, Linda felt
so light; she felt like a leaf. Along came Life like a wind and she was
seized and shaken; she had to go. Oh dear, would it always be so? Was
there no escape?
...Now she sat on the veranda of their Tasmanian home, leaning against her
father's knee. And he promised, "As soon as you and I are old enough,
Linny, we'll cut off somewhere, we'll escape. Two boys together. I have a
fancy I'd like to sail up a river in China." Linda saw that river, very
wide, covered with little rafts and boats. She saw the yellow hats of the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: embellished with all the physical and inanimate objects which
cover the earth, was the kind of poetry peculiar to democratic
ages; but I believe this to be an error, and that it only belongs
to a period of transition.
I am persuaded that in the end democracy diverts the
imagination from all that is external to man, and fixes it on man
alone. Democratic nations may amuse themselves for a while with
considering the productions of nature; but they are only excited
in reality by a survey of themselves. Here, and here alone, the
true sources of poetry amongst such nations are to be found; and
it may be believed that the poets who shall neglect to draw their
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