| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: religion which began in 1562; the times which are spoken of usually
as "The Troubles," as if men did not wish to allude to them too
openly. Then, and afterwards in the wars of the League, deeds were
done for which language has no name. The population decreased. The
land lay untilled. The fair face of France was blackened with burnt
homesteads and ruined towns. Ghastly corpses dangled in rows upon
the trees, or floated down the blood-stained streams. Law and order
were at an end. Bands of robbers prowled in open day, and bands of
wolves likewise. But all through the horrors of the troubles we
catch sight of the little fat doctor riding all unarmed to see his
patients throughout Languedoc; going vast distances, his biographers
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: "'Heavens!' I thought, 'there is his mate.'
"Hardly was the thought out of my head when I caught sight in the
moonlight of the lioness bounding along through the long grass, and
after her a couple of cubs about the size of mastiffs. She stopped
within a few feet of my head, and stood, waved her tail, and fixed me
with her glowing yellow eyes; but just as I thought that it was all over
she turned and began to feed on Kaptein, and so did the cubs. There
were the four of them within eight feet of me, growling and quarrelling,
rending and tearing, and crunching poor Kaptein's bones; and there I lay
shaking with terror, and the cold perspiration pouring out of me,
feeling like another Daniel come to judgment in a new sense of the
Long Odds |
