| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: would do as you say. But I have no will in the matter. I have
instructions from the Kaiser, and I cannot go back again from what
I have been sent to do." "I thought you would be commanded," said
Mataafa, "if you brought about the weal of Samoa." "I will tell
you," said the commodore. "All shall go quietly. But there is one
thing that must be done: Malietoa must be deposed. I will do
nothing to him beyond; he will only be kept on board for a couple
of months and be well treated, just as we Germans did to the French
chief [Napoleon III.] some time ago, whom we kept a while and cared
for well." Becker was no less explicit: war, he told Sewall,
should not cease till the Germans had custody of Malietoa and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: number of chances in my sport than have it domesticated to the point
of dulness.
The trim plantations of trees which are called "forests" in certain
parts of Europe--scientifically pruned and tended, counted every
year by uniformed foresters, and defended against all possible
depredations--are admirable and useful in their way; but they lack
the mystic enchantment of the fragments of native woodland which
linger among the Adirondacks and the White Mountains, or the vast,
shaggy, sylvan wildernesses which hide the lakes and rivers of
Canada. These Laurentian Hills lie in No Man's Land. Here you do
not need to keep to the path, for there is none. You may make your
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