| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: he could fill his sombrero with water. After quenching his
thirst he had a look at his wound. It was caked over with blood
and dirt. When washed off the arm was seen to be inflamed and
swollen around the bullet-hole. He bathed it, experiencing a
soothing relief in the cool water. Then he bandaged it as best
he could and arranged a sling round his neck. This mitigated
the pain of the injured member and held it in a quiet and
restful position, where it had a chance to begin mending.
As Duane turned away from the river he felt refreshed. His
great strength and endurance had always made fatigue something
almost unknown to him. However, tramping on foot day and night
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: systems that treat people as if they were things, and so treat
everybody alike: for him there were no laws: there were
exceptions merely, as if anybody, or anything, for that matter, was
like aught else in the world!
That which is the very keynote of romantic art was to him the
proper basis of natural life. He saw no other basis. And when
they brought him one, taken in the very act of sin and showed him
her sentence written in the law, and asked him what was to be done,
he wrote with his finger on the ground as though he did not hear
them, and finally, when they pressed him again, looked up and said,
'Let him of you who has never sinned be the first to throw the
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