| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: very properly he felt that he must call the captain out at once.
He crossed the deck in one bound. By the immemorial custom and
usage of the sea the captain's room is on the starboard side. You
would just as soon expect your captain to have his nose at the back
of his head as to have his stateroom on the port side of the ship.
Powell forgot all about the direction on that point given him by the
chief. He flew over as I said, stamped with his foot and then
putting his face to the cowl of the big ventilator shouted down
there: "Please come on deck, sir," in a voice which was not
trembling or scared but which we may call fairly expressive. There
could not be a mistake as to the urgence of the call. But instead
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: should have passed under Germany, under my beloved town of Hamburg,
under the very street where dwelt all that I loved most in the world.
Then only forty leagues would have separated us! But they were forty
leagues perpendicular of solid granite wall, and in reality we were a
thousand leagues asunder!
All these painful reflections rapidly crossed my mind before I could
answer my uncle's question.
"Well, now," he repeated, "won't you tell me how you have slept?"
"Oh, very well," I said. "I am only a little knocked up, but I shall
soon be better."
"Oh," says my uncle, "that's nothing to signify. You are only a
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
