| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: manner of a great pain or of a great catastrophe. What was there
to look at but that woman's face, in a world which had lost its
consistency, its shape, and its promises in a moment?
Mrs. Travers looked away. She understood that she had put to
Lingard an impossible question. What was presenting itself to her
as a problem was to that man a crisis of feeling. Obviously
Carter's action had broken the compact entered into with Daman,
and she was intelligent enough to understand that it was the sort
of thing that could not be explained away. It wasn't horror that
she felt, but a sort of consternation, something like the
discomfiture of people who have just missed their train. It was
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Cried, 'O false blood, thou register of lies,
What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!'
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
Big discontent so breaking their contents.
A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,
Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew
Of court, of city, and had let go by
The swiftest hours, observed as they flew,
Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew;
And, privileg'd by age, desires to know
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