| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: they are. At the Judean supper there was one Master, and to the onlooker
there may have seemed twelve apostles; in truth only twelve were of the
company, and one was not of it. There has always been this thirteenth
figure at every sacramental gathering, since the world began, wherever the
upholders of a great cause have broken spiritual bread; but it may be
questioned whether in any instance this thirteenth figure has been able to
destroy, or even vitally to retard, any great human movement. Judas could
hang his Master by a kiss; but he could not silence the voice which for a
thousand years rang out of that Judean grave. Again and again, in social,
political, and intellectual movements, the betrayer betrays;--and the cause
marches on over the body of the man.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: connection was there between the phenomena of the Blueridge
Mountains, arid the no less phenomenal performances of the fantastic
machine?
I knew what my first step should be; and with the letter in my
pocket, I hastened to police headquarters. Inquiring if Mr. Ward was
within and receiving an affirmative reply, I hastened toward his
door, and rapped upon it with unusual and perhaps unnecessary vigor.
Upon his call to enter, I stepped eagerly into the room.
The chief had spread before him the letter published in the papers,
not a facsimile, but the original itself which had been deposited in
the letter-box of the department.
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