| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: of life.
"But if you were once a Venetian senator, you must have been a wealthy
man. How did you lose your fortune?"
"In evil days."
He waved away the glass of wine handed to him by the flageolet, and
bowed his head. He had no heart to drink. These details were not
calculated to extinguish my curiosity.
As the three ground out the music of the square dance, I gazed at the
old Venetian noble, thinking thoughts that set a young man's mind
afire at the age of twenty. I saw Venice and the Adriatic; I saw her
ruin in the ruin of the face before me. I walked to and fro in that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: limb where he had lain in wait and from whence he
had launched his sinuous coil.
The mighty tusker turned at the sound of his falling body,
and, seeing only the easy prey of a young ape, he lowered his
head and charged madly at the surprised youth.
Tarzan, happily, was uninjured by the fall, alighting catlike
upon all fours far outspread to take up the shock. He was on
his feet in an instant and, leaping with the agility of the
monkey he was, he gained the safety of a low limb as Horta,
the boar, rushed futilely beneath.
Thus it was that Tarzan learned by experience the limitations
Tarzan of the Apes |
