| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: some restraint upon this unmeasured fanaticism.
"Just listen to me," I said firmly. "Ambition must have a limit
somewhere; we cannot perform impossibilities; we are not at all fit
for another sea voyage; who would dream of undertaking a voyage of
five hundred leagues upon a heap of rotten planks, with a blanket in
rags for a sail, a stick for a mast, and fierce winds in our teeth?
We cannot steer; we shall be buffeted by the tempests, and we should
be fools and madmen to attempt to cross a second time."
I was able to develop this series of unanswerable reasons for ten
minutes without interruption; not that the Professor was paying any
respectful attention to his nephew's arguments, but because he was
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: All day the soft wind played with her hair, and the young, young face
looked out across the water. She was waiting--she was waiting; but she
could not tell for what.
All day the waves ran up and up on the sand, and ran back again, and the
pink shells rolled. Life sat waiting; all day, with the sunlight in her
eyes, she sat there, till, grown weary, she laid her head upon her knee and
fell asleep, waiting still.
Then a keel grated on the sand, and then a step was on the shore--Life
awoke and heard it. A hand was laid upon her, and a great shudder passed
through her. She looked up, and saw over her the strange, wide eyes of
Love--and Life now knew for whom she had sat there waiting.
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