| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: it threw the transom in the direction of my father's bed.
As it happened it struck on his face, and I heard him getting up
and talking dreadfully to himself. Also turning on the lights. I
put my mouth to the keyhole and said:
"Father!"
Had he but been quiet, all would have been well. But he opened the
door and began roaring at me in a loud tone, calling me an imp of
Mischeif and other things, and yelling for a towle.
I then went in and closed the door and said:
"That's right. Bellow and spoil it all."
"Spoil what?" he said, glareing at me. "There's nothing left to
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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 Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: feeling was torment. He was conscious of motion.
Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely
the fiery heart, without material substance, he swung
through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast
pendulum. Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the
light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash;
a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and
dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the
rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. There was
no additional strangulation; the noose about his neck
was already suffocating him and kept the water from his
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
