| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: beside her.
The curtains were not yet drawn before the windows and a blue light shone
through, and the white boughs of the trees sprayed across.
A woman's room--full of flowers and photographs and silk pillows--the floor
smothered in rugs--an immense tiger-skin under the piano--just the head
protruding--sleepily savage.
"It was good enough," said Max. "Victor can't be in till late. He told me
to come up and tell you."
He started walking up and down--tore off his gloves and flung them on the
table.
"Don't do that, Max," said Elsa, "you get on my nerves. And I've got a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: Hallstatt is about ten miles below Aussee. The Traun here expands
into a lake, very dark and deep, shut in by steep and lofty
mountains. The railway runs along the eastern shore. On the other
side, a mile away, you see the old town, its white houses clinging
to the cliff like lichens to the face of a rock. The guide-book
calls it "a highly original situation." But this is one of the
cases where a little less originality and a little more
reasonableness might be desired, at least by the permanent
inhabitants. A ledge under the shadow of a precipice makes a
trying winter residence. The people of Hallstatt are not a
blooming race: one sees many dwarfs and cripples among them. But
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