| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: he said.
I thought, surveying him.
"I come from Mortlake," I said. "I was buried near the
pit the Martians made about their cylinder. I have worked
my way out and escaped."
"There is no food about here," he said. "This is my coun-
try. All this hill down to the river, and back to Clapham,
and up to the edge of the common. There is only food for one.
Which way are you going?"
I answered slowly.
"I don't know," I said. "I have been buried in the ruins
War of the Worlds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: human standpoint; they do not see that with the Devil's power they
will likewise assume his thoughts, and that they will be doomed to
remain as men among creatures who will no longer understand them. The
Nero unknown to history who dreams of setting Paris on fire for his
private entertainment, like an exhibition of a burning house on the
boards of a theatre, does not suspect that if he had the power, Paris
would become for him as little interesting as an ant-heap by the
roadside to a hurrying passer-by. The circle of the sciences was for
Castanier something like a logogriph for a man who does not know the
key to it. Kings and Governments were despicable in his eyes. His
great debauch had been in some sort a deplorable farewell to his life
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