| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: "She's had a good dinner," he thought, without troubling himself as to
whether her feast might have been on human flesh. "She won't be hungry
when she gets up."
It was a female. The fur on her belly and flanks was glistening white;
many small marks like velvet formed beautiful bracelets round her
feet; her sinuous tail was also white, ending with black rings; the
overpart of her dress, yellow like burnished gold, very lissome and
soft, had the characteristic blotches in the form of rosettes, which
distinguish the panther from every other feline species.
This tranquil and formidable hostess snored in an attitude as graceful
as that of a cat lying on a cushion. Her blood-stained paws, nervous
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: was compelled to live for days with the dead body. These
usually pass their time by the pleasant human expedient of
quarrelling; and sometimes, I am assured, not one of the three
is on speaking terms with any other. On shore stations, which
on the Scottish coast are sometimes hardly less isolated, the
usual number is two, a principal and an assistant. The
principal is dissatisfied with the assistant, or perhaps the
assistant keeps pigeons, and the principal wants the water
from the roof. Their wives and families are with them, living
cheek by jowl. The children quarrel; Jockie hits Jimsie in
the eye, and the mothers make haste to mingle in the
|
