| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: perform the act of self-emancipation, to take up the marvellous
new tools of science, and to make yourself, by means of exact
knowledge, the creator of your own life and in part of the life
of the race.
The New Morality
Life is a process of expansion, of the unfoldment of new powers;
driven by that inner impulse which the philosophers of Pragmatism
call the elan vital. Whenever this impulse has its way, there is
an emotion of joy; whenever it is balked, there is one of
distress. So pleasure and pain are the guides of life, and the
final goal is a condition of free and constantly accelerating
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: decreasing air pressure on all parts of Barsoom--the engine has stopped."
"My gentlemen," he concluded, "we have at best three days to live."
There was absolute silence for several minutes, and then
a young noble arose, and with his drawn sword held high
above his head addressed Tardos Mors.
"The men of Helium have prided themselves that they have
ever shown Barsoom how a nation of red men should live,
now is our opportunity to show them how they should die.
Let us go about our duties as though a thousand useful years
still lay before us."
The chamber rang with applause and as there was nothing
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