| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: flung the damned thing into the sea. But I'll tell it to you,
boys. John Davis is my name. I'm Davis of the Sea Ranger.'
'Dooce you are!' said Hush. 'And what was she? a pirate or a
slyver?'
'She was the fastest barque out of Portland, Maine,' replied
the captain; 'and for the way I lost her, I might as well have
bored a hole in her side with an auger.'
'Oh, you lost her, did you?' said the clerk. ''Ope she was
insured?'
No answer being returned to this sally, Huish, still brimming
over with vanity and conversation, struck into another subject.
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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 Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: and hiding among the weeds and reeds that separated this
crevice from the sea I watched such of them as appeared,
trying to judge from their gestures and appearance how the death
of Moreau and Montgomery and the destruction of the House of Pain
had affected them. I know now the folly of my cowardice.
Had I kept my courage up to the level of the dawn, had I not
allowed it to ebb away in solitary thought, I might have grasped
the vacant sceptre of Moreau and ruled over the Beast People.
As it was I lost the opportunity, and sank to the position of a mere
leader among my fellows.
Towards noon certain of them came and squatted basking in the hot sand.
 The Island of Doctor Moreau |