| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The ground was rolling and tree-dotted and covered with grazing
animals, alone, in pairs and in herds--a motley aggregation of
the modern and extinct herbivore of the world. A huge woolly
mastodon stood swaying to and fro in the shade of a giant
fern--a mighty bull with enormous upcurving tusks. Near him
grazed an aurochs bull with a cow and a calf, close beside a
lone rhinoceros asleep in a dust-hole. Deer, antelope, bison,
horses, sheep, and goats were all in sight at the same time,
and at a little distance a great megatherium reared up on its
huge tail and massive hind feet to tear the leaves from a
tall tree. The forgotten past rubbed flanks with the present--
The People That Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: his cavalry to charge in reliance of the support of himself and the
main body in their rear. Charge they did, these troopers, and the pick
of Persian cavalry received them bravely, but in face of the conjoint
horror of the attack they swerved, and some were cut down at once in
the river-bed, while others sought safety in flight. The Hellenes
followed close on the heels of the flying foe, and captured his camp.
Here the peltasts, not unnaturally, fell to pillaging, whereupon
Agesilaus formed a cordon of troops, round the property of friends and
foes alike, and so encamped.
Presently hearing that the enemy were in a state of disorder, the
result of every one holding his fellow responsible for what had
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