| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: and nestling into its tufted top, she watched the stranger with the
inquisitive attention of the forest birds.
"Adieu, adieu, adieu," she said, without the soul communicating one
single intelligent inflexion to the word.
It was uttered impassively, as the bird sings his note.
"She does not recognize me!" cried the colonel, in despair.
"Stephanie! it is Philippe, thy Philippe, PHILIPPE!"
And the poor soldier went to the acacia; but when he was a few steps
from it, the countess looked at him, as if defying him, although a
slight expression of fear seemed to flicker in her eye; then, with a
single bound she sprang from the acacia to a laburnum, and thence to a
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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 Young Forester by Zane Grey: the suspense. Suddenly the silence was broken by a threatening roar. It
swept down on me, swelling as it continued, and it seemed to fill the
canyon. It shook my pulses, it urged me to flight, but I could not move.
Then as suddenly it ceased.
For a long moment I stood still, with no idea of advancing farther. The
clinking of a chain seemed to release my cramped muscles. Very cautiously I
peered around a projecting corner of wall. There sat a huge black bear on
his haunches holding up a great steel trap which clutched one of his paws.
It was such a strange sight that my fear was forgotten. There was something
almost human in the way the bear looked at that trap. He touched it
gingerly with his free paw, and nosed it. I crept up close to the corner of
The Young Forester |
