| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: out in vague damnations.
The lieutenant, who had listened with an air
of impotent rage to the interview, spoke suddenly
in firm and undaunted tones. "I don't care what
a man is--whether he is a general or what--if
he says th' boys didn't put up a good fight out
there he's a damned fool."
"Lieutenant," began the colonel, severely,
"this is my own affair, and I'll trouble you--"
The lieutenant made an obedient gesture.
"All right, colonel, all right," he said. He sat
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: "What do you expect me to know, Marie?"
"Well! about Nathan."
"You think you love him," he replied; "but you love a phantom made of
words."
"Then you know--"
"All," he said.
The word fell on Marie's head like the blow of a club.
"If you wish it, I will know nothing," he continued. "You are standing
on the brink of a precipice, my child, and I must draw you from it. I
have already done something. See!"
He drew from his pocket her letter of guarantee and the four notes
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