| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: shove off on him whenever she could the registration of letters, a
job she happened particularly to loathe. After the long stupors,
at all events, there almost always suddenly would come a sharp
taste of something; it was in her mouth before she knew it; it was
in her mouth now.
To Cissy, to Mary, whichever it was, she found her curiosity going
out with a rush, a mute effusion that floated back to her, like a
returning tide, the living colour and splendour of the beautiful
head, the light of eyes that seemed to reflect such utterly other
things than the mean things actually before them; and, above all,
the high curt consideration of a manner that even at bad moments
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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 Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: desire to go to sea. But for a boy between fifteen and sixteen,
sensitive enough, in all conscience, the commotion of his little
world had seemed a very considerable thing indeed. So
considerable that, absurdly enough, the echoes of it linger to
this day. I catch myself in hours of solitude and retrospect
meeting arguments and charges made thirty-five years ago by
voices now forever still; finding things to say that an assailed
boy could not have found, simply because of the mysteriousness of
his impulses to himself. I understood no more than the people who
called upon me to explain myself. There was no precedent. I
verily believe mine was the only case of a boy of my nationality
 A Personal Record |