| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: "I bringed 'er up deh way a dauter oughta be bringed up an'
dis is how she served me! She went teh deh devil deh first chance
she got! May Gawd forgive her."
When arrested for drunkenness she used the story of her
daughter's downfall with telling effect upon the police justices.
Finally one of them said to her, peering down over his spectacles:
"Mary, the records of this and other courts show that you are the
mother of forty-two daughters who have been ruined. The case
is unparalleled in the annals of this court, and this court
thinks--"
The mother went through life shedding large tears of sorrow.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: convinced in common with his uncle and the whole colony that I
was married, he put such a restraint upon his feelings, that they
remained generally unnoticed; and he lost no opportunity of
showing the most disinterested friendship for me.
"He happened to be with his uncle when I arrived at the
government house. I had no reason for keeping my intention a
secret from him, so that I explained myself without hesitation in
his presence. The governor heard me with his usual kindness. I
related to him a part of my history, to which he listened with
evident interest; and when I requested his presence at the
intended ceremony, he was so generous as to say, that he must be
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