| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: did not realize how close he had been to death or that
he had been saved by the chance location of the auto-
matic pistol in his breast pocket--the very pistol he had
taken from the dressing table of Abigail Prim's boudoir.
The commotion of the attack and escape brought the
other sleepers to heavy-eyed wakefulness. They saw
Dopey Charlie advancing upon the Kid, a knife in his
hand. Behind him slunk The General, urging the other
on. The youth was backing toward the doorway. The
tableau persisted but for an instant. Then the would-be
murderer rushed madly upon his victim, the latter's
The Oakdale Affair |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: there fell more than twenty-five thousand of the enemy; of the Romans, as
Posidonius relates, a hundred; as Nasica, only fourscore. This battle,
though so great, was very quickly decided, it being three in the
afternoon when they first engaged, and not four when the enemy was
vanquished; the rest of the day was spent in the pursuit of the
fugitives, whom they followed about thirteen or fourteen miles, so that
it was far in the night when they returned.
All the others were met by their servants with torches, and brought back
with joy and great triumph to their tents, which were set out with
lights, and decked with wreaths of ivy and laurel. But the general
himself was in great grief. Of the two sons that served under him in the
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