| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: Maria's mode of thinking.
She read them over and over again; and fancy, treacherous
fancy, began to sketch a character, congenial with her own, from
these shadowy outlines.--"Was he mad?" She reperused the marginal
notes, and they seemed the production of an animated, but not of
a disturbed imagination. Confined to this speculation, every time
she re-read them, some fresh refinement of sentiment, or accuteness
of thought impressed her, which she was astonished at herself for
not having before observed.
What a creative power has an affectionate heart! There are
beings who cannot live without loving, as poets love; and who feel
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: ever was left between them would be honest.
But she could not stay in the house this
evening. Where should she go? She walked
slowly down through the orchard, where the
evening air was heavy with the smell of wild
cotton. The fresh, salty scent of the wild roses
had given way before this more powerful per-
fume of midsummer. Wherever those ashes-of-
rose balls hung on their milky stalks, the air
about them was saturated with their breath.
O Pioneers! |
