| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: Then my father gave way, to my delight and relief. For if he had not,
what chance would there have been of my getting some still more
important words with Marie? So having collected the geese and the two
falcons, which I proposed to skin for Marie, I was helped into the cart,
and we drove off, reaching Maraisfontein just as night set in.
That evening, after we had eaten, Heer Marais asked my father and myself
to speak with him in the sitting-room. By an afterthought also, or so
it seemed to me, he told his daughter, who had been clearing away the
dishes and with whom as yet I had found no opportunity to talk, to come
in with us and close the door behind her.
When all were seated and we men had lit our pipes, though apprehension
 Marie |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: Will curse the time the Abbeys were pulled down.
I pray, now where is hospitality?
Where now may poor distressed people go,
For to relieve their need, or rest their bones,
When weary travel doth oppress their limbs?
And where religious men should take them in,
Shall now be kept back with a Mastiff do,
And thousand thousand--
NORFOLK.
O, my Lord, no more: things past redress
Tis bootless to complain.
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