The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: was familiar speaker with God, and Jesu Christ was the word and the
spirit of God, and that Mohammet was right messenger of God. And
they say, that of these four, Jesu was the most worthy and the most
excellent and the most great. So that they have many good articles
of our faith, albeit that they have no perfect law and faith as
Christian men have; and therefore be they lightly converted, and
namely those that understand the scriptures and the prophecies.
For they have the gospels and the prophecies and the Bible written
in their language; wherefore they ken much of holy writ, but they
understand it not but after the letter. And so do the Jews, for
they understand not the letter ghostly, but bodily; and therefore
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: efforts. Neither are they all obliged to climb five weary flights
of stairs to reach the dismal little court room which is their
home, and there are several who need not walk thirty-three blocks
to save carfare, only to spend wretched evenings washing out
handkerchiefs and stockings in the cracked little washbowl, while
one ear is cocked for the stealthy tread of the Lady Who Objects.
The earnest compiler of working girls' budgets would pass
Effie Bauer hurriedly by. Effie's budget bulged here and there
with such pathetic items as hand-embroidered blouses, thick club
steaks, and parquet tickets for Maude Adams. That you may
visualize her at once I may say that Effie looked twenty-four--from
 Buttered Side Down |