| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: Alexander and the sailing of the Nadeshda. More-
over, there was hardly another court of importance
in Europe with which he was not familiar, and few
men had had a more complete experience of life.
And the life of a courtier, a diplomat, a traveller,
noble, wealthy, agreeable to women by divine right,
with active enemies and a horde of flatterers, in
daily contact with the meaner and more disin-
genuous corners of human nature, is not conducive
to a broad optimism and a sweet and immutable
Christianity. Rezanov inevitably was more or less
 Rezanov |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: morsel with very blue eyes and she was saying, over and over in a
rapture of delightful idiocy:
"Say hello to your gran-muzzer, yes her is! Say, hello,
granny!" And her longing arms reached down to take up her
namesake.
"Not now!" Grace said hastily. "We never play with her just
before feeding-time. We find that it excites her, and that's bad
for her digestion."
"Dear me!" marveled Emma. "I don't remember worrying about
Jock's digestion when he was two and a half months old!"
It was thus that Emma McChesney Buck, for many years accustomed
 Emma McChesney & Co. |