| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: been immediately transmitted to all the approaches of the
city, and a full description of Michael sent to all the various
commandants, in order to prevent his departure from Omsk.
But he had already passed through one of the breaches in
the wall; his horse was galloping over the steppe, and the
chances of escape were in his favor.
It was on the 29th of July, at eight o'clock in the evening,
that Michael Strogoff had left Omsk. This town is sit-
uated about halfway between Moscow and Irkutsk, where
it was necessary that he should arrive within ten days if he
wished to get ahead of the Tartar columns. It was evident
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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 Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: not in a position to mend. Using such skilled labor as
they had, they mended such wagons as were given them,
and later made a practice of going to the railway yards and
in inspecting "sick" wagons for themselves, taking out any
that they thought had a chance even of temporary
convalescence. Incidentally they caused great scandal by
finding in the Smolensk sidings among the locomotives and
wagons supposed to be sick six good locomotives and
seventy perfectly healthy wagons. Then they began to
improve the feeding of their army by sending the wood they
had cut, in the trains they had mended, to people who
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: skill to snatch out of that vast mass of material what is most
important and necessary, and, as rapidly as my words flow, clothe
my thought in a form in which it can be grasped by the monster's
intelligence, and may arouse its attention, and at the same time
one must keep a sharp lookout that one's thoughts are conveyed,
not just as they come, but in a certain order, essential for the
correct composition of the picture I wish to sketch. Further, I
endeavour to make my diction literary, my definitions brief and
precise, my wording, as far as possible, simple and eloquent.
Every minute I have to pull myself up and remember that I have
only an hour and forty minutes at my disposal. In short, one has
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: Will still be yours, and ample for your need!
Though, with bare stones o'erspread, the pastures all
Be choked with rushy mire, your ewes with young
By no strange fodder will be tried, nor hurt
Through taint contagious of a neighbouring flock.
Happy old man, who 'mid familiar streams
And hallowed springs, will court the cooling shade!
Here, as of old, your neighbour's bordering hedge,
That feasts with willow-flower the Hybla bees,
Shall oft with gentle murmur lull to sleep,
While the leaf-dresser beneath some tall rock
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