| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: breast. An imperceptible movement of the blind man's
knife turned aside the blow. Michael had not been touched,
and coolly he awaited a second attack.
Cold drops stood on Ogareff's brow. He drew back a
step, then again leaped forward. But as had the first, this
second attempt failed. The knife had simply parried the
blow from the traitor's useless sword.
Mad with rage and terror before this living statue, he
gazed into the wide-open eyes of the blind man. Those
eyes which seemed to pierce to the bottom of his soul, and
yet which did not, could not, see -- exercised a sort of dread-
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: cliff-base by silver spruces; below that first terrace sloped
another wider one densely overgrown with aspens, and the center
of the valley was a level circle of oaks and alders, with the
glittering green line of willows and cottonwood dividing it in
half. Venters saw a number and variety of birds flitting among
the trees. To his left, facing the stone bridge, an enormous
cavern opened in the wall; and low down, just above the
tree-tops, he made out a long shelf of cliff-dwellings, with
little black, staring windows or doors. Like eyes they were, and
seemed to watch him. The few cliff-dwellings he had seen- -all
ruins--had left him with haunting memory of age and solitude and
Riders of the Purple Sage |
