| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: rather than talking, "if we could only apply that Rule to books!
You know, in finding the Least Common Multiple, we strike out a quantity
wherever it occurs, except in the term where it is raised to its
highest power. So we should have to erase every recorded thought,
except in the sentence where it is expressed with the greatest
intensity."
My Lady laughed merrily. "Some books would be reduced to blank paper,
I'm afraid!" she said.
"They would. Most libraries would be terribly diminished in bulk.
But just think what they would gain in quality!"
"When will it be done?" she eagerly asked. "If there's any chance of it
 Sylvie and Bruno |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: that I wouldn't have given him or any other man credit for--
persuaded Binu Charley to go along with him. I'll wager no other
Binu nigger has ever gone so far into the bush unless to be kai-
kai'd. As for Tudor--"
"Look! look!" Joan cried in a low voice, pointing across the
narrow stream to a slack eddy where a huge crocodile drifted like a
log awash. "My! I wish I had my rifle."
The crocodile, leaving scarcely a ripple behind, sank down and
disappeared.
"A Binu man was in early this morning--for medicine," Sheldon
remarked. "It may have been that very brute that was responsible.
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