| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: body.
LXIII
A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him
back to the right path--he does not mock and jeer at him and
then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the
truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you
do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own
incapacity.
LXIV
It was the first and most striking characteristic of
Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an
 The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: there's no strength to live? And meanwhile one must live, and one
wants to live!
"I went away from my brother's early in the morning, and ever
since then it has been unbearable for me to be in town. I am
oppressed by its peace and quiet; I am afraid to look at the
windows, for there is no spectacle more painful to me now than
the sight of a happy family sitting round the table drinking tea.
I am old and am not fit for the struggle; I am not even capable
of hatred; I can only grieve inwardly, feel irritated and vexed;
but at night my head is hot from the rush of ideas, and I cannot
sleep. . . . Ah, if I were young!"
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