| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: party's estimate of the situation in general. It is obvious that
the Communist plans for Russia must be largely affected by
their view of Europe as a whole. This view is gloomy in the
extreme. The Communists believe that Europe is steadily
shaking itself to pieces. They believe that this
process has already gone so far that, even given good will on
the part of European Governments, the manufacturers of
Western countries are already incapable of supplying them
with all the things which Russia was importing before the
war, still less make up the enormous arrears which have
resulted from six years of blockade. They do not agree with
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: in three strokes, quite gently. It opened its bill, it struggled
to escape me, but I held it, oh! I held it--I could have held a
mad dog--and I saw the blood trickle.
And then I did as assassins do--real ones. I washed the scissors
and washed my hands. I sprinkled water, and took the body, the
corpse, to the garden to hide it. I buried it under a
strawberry-plant. It will never be found. Every day I can eat a
strawberry from that plant. How one can enjoy life, when one
knows how!
My servant cried; he thought his bird flown. How could he suspect
me? Ah!
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