| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: never stop. If it had not been for his striking appearance and for the
strange, wild tales he told of his lonely life, he would have reminded me
of the old canal-lock tenders at home.
Once, when he was refilling his pipe and I thought it would be a good time
to profit from his knowledge of the forests, I said to him:
"Now, Mr. Bent, let's suppose I'm the President of the United States, and I
have just appointed you to the office of Chief Forester of the National
Forests. You have full power. The object is to conserve our national
resources. What will you do?"
"Wal, Mr. President," he began, slowly and seriously, and with great
dignity, "the Government must own the forests an' deal wisely with them.
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: pages), and I found eleven slips in grammar. I shall say that the
writer may have mastered the dicky-bird language on the flints that
they call 'obelisks' out there in Egypt, but he cannot write in his
own, as I will prove to him in a column and a half. I shall say that
instead of giving us the natural history and archaeology, he ought to
have interested himself in the future of Egypt, in the progress of
civilization, and the best method of strengthening the bond between
Egypt and France. France has won and lost Egypt, but she may yet
attach the country to her interests by gaining a moral ascendency over
it. Then some patriotic penny-a-lining, interlarded with diatribes on
Marseilles, the Levant and our trade."
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