| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: [Enter JACK with a hand-bag of black leather in his hand.]
JACK. [Rushing over to MISS PRISM.] Is this the handbag, Miss
Prism? Examine it carefully before you speak. The happiness of
more than one life depends on your answer.
MISS PRISM. [Calmly.] It seems to be mine. Yes, here is the
injury it received through the upsetting of a Gower Street omnibus
in younger and happier days. Here is the stain on the lining
caused by the explosion of a temperance beverage, an incident that
occurred at Leamington. And here, on the lock, are my initials. I
had forgotten that in an extravagant mood I had had them placed
there. The bag is undoubtedly mine. I am delighted to have it so
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: remained conservative, immovable, one might almost say
Early-Victorian-Christian. His country house at
Dulwich-on-the-Sound
was a palace of the Italian Renaissance. But in town
he adhered to an architecture which had moral associations,
the Nineteenth-Century-Brownstone epoch. It was a symbol of
his social position, his religious doctrine, and even, in a way,
of his business creed.
"A man of fixed principles," he would say, "should express them
in
the looks of his house. New York changes its domestic
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