| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: Tears leaped to the prisoner's eyes. He had been a game man in
the dead years that were past, none gamer in Texas, and he could
still face his jailers with an impassive face; but this first
kindly word from his native land in fifteen years to the man
buried alive touched the fount of his emotions. He turned away
and leaned against the grating of his cell, his head resting on
his forearm. "My God! man, you don't know what it means to me.
Sometimes I think I shall go mad and rave. After all these years
But I know you'll fail--It's too good to be true," he finished
quietly.
"I'll not fail, though I may be delayed. But I can't say more.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: estates, in short, the highest personages in the department, do not go
to their houses; social intercourse between them is carried on by
cards from one to the other, and a dinner or soiree accepted and
returned.
This salon, in which the lesser nobility, the clergy, and the
magistracy meet together, exerts a great influence. The judgment and
mind of the region reside in that solid, unostentatious society, where
each man knows the resources of his neighbor, where complete
indifference is shown to luxury and dress,--pleasures which are
thought childish in comparison to that of obtaining ten or twelve
acres of pasture land,--a purchase coveted for years, which has
|
