| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: blast had abated a little, Nikita took off his mittens, stuck
them into his belt, breathed onto his hands, and began to undo
the straps of the shaft-bow.
'What's that you are doing there?' asked Vasili Andreevich.
'Unharnessing. What else is there to do? I have no strength
left,' said Nikita as though excusing himself.
'Can't we drive somewhere?'
'No, we can't. We shall only kill the horse. Why, the poor
beast is not himself now,' said Nikita, pointing to the horse,
which was standing submissively waiting for what might come,
with his steep wet sides heaving heavily. 'We shall have to
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: desirable, result of the revolution. They forget that the
Russians have never been a subject race, that they have
immense powers of passive resistance, that they respond
very readily to any idea that they understand, and that the
idea of revolt against foreigners is difficult not to
understand. Any country that takes advantage of the
Russian people in a moment of helplessness will find, sooner
or later, first that it has united Russia against it, and secondly
that it has given all Russians a single and undesirable view of
the history of the last three years. There will not be a
Russian who will not believe that the artificial incubation of
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