| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: where there was any trouble brewing, he was always in the midst of
it.
"This little strange man says, 'Zuya unhipi! We come to make
war!'"
"Uun!" resented the people, suddenly stricken glum. "Let us
kill the silly pair! They can do nothing! They do not know the
meaning of the phrase. Let us build a fire and boil them both!"
"If you put us on to boil," said the Fish, "there will be
trouble."
"Ho ho!" laughed the village folk. "We shall see."
And so they made a fire.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: dignities were the meed of men whose rhetoric had been schooled in
theological controversy. The professor's chair was the tribune of the
period.
This system lasted till the day when Rabelais gibbeted dialectics by
his merciless satire, as Cervantes demolished chivalry by a narrative
comedy.
To understand this amazing period and the spirit which dictated its
voluminous, though now forgotten, masterpieces, to analyze it, even to
its barbarisms, we need only examine the Constitutions of the
University of Paris and the extraordinary scheme of instruction that
then obtained. Theology was taught under two faculties--that of
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