| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: fall off again as they would, without much reflection. But tonight on the
kopje he fell to thinking, and his thoughts shaped themselves into
connected chains.
He wondered first whether his mother would ever get the letter he had
posted the week before, and whether it would be brought to her cottage or
she would go to the post office to fetch it. And then, he fell to thinking
of the little English village where he had been born, and where he had
grown up. He saw his mother's fat white ducklings creep in and out under
the gate, and waddle down to the little pond at the back of the yard; he
saw the school house that he had hated so much as a boy, and from which he
had so often run away to go a-fishing, or a-bird's-nesting. He saw the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: it better than I."
"Well, it won't last," Mr. Westgate very cheerfully declared;
"nothing unpleasant lasts over here. It was very hot when Captain
Littledale was here; he did nothing but drink sherry cobblers.
He expressed some doubt in his letter whether I will remember him--
as if I didn't remember making six sherry cobblers for him one day
in about twenty minutes. I hope you left him well, two years having
elapsed since then."
"Oh, yes, he's all right," said Lord Lambeth.
"I am always very glad to see your countrymen," Mr. Westgate pursued.
"I thought it would be time some of you should be coming along.
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