| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: child. His modernity showed itself in the temperance of his
reply.
"Don't you think, my dear, that on the whole your mother and I,
who have lived longer and know more, are more likely to know when
it is best that you should begin to know--this or that?"
The girl knitted her brows and seemed to be reading her answer
out of the depths of the coals. She was on the verge of speaking,
altered her mind and tried a different beginning.
"I think that every one must do their thinking--his thinking
--for--oneself," she said awkwardly.
"You mean you can't trust--?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: They discharged their load at Silverado, in the hour of
sleep; and before the morning they were gone again with their
mysterious drivers to their unknown source. In this way,
twenty thousand pounds' worth of silver was smuggled in under
cover of night, in these old cigar boxes; mixed with
Silverado mineral; carted down to the mill; crushed,
amalgated, and refined, and despatched to the city as the
proper product of the mine. Stock-jobbing, if it can cover
such expenses, must be a profitable business in San
Francisco.
I give these two versions as I got them. But I place little
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