| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: brown with visible checks, beautifully matched in
shade by the ends of four cigars that his vest pocket
poorly concealed. Light tan were his shoes, gray his
socks, sky-blue his apparent linen, snowy and high
and adamantine his collar, against which a black but-
terfly had alighted and spread his wings. Sammy's
face -- least important -- was round and pleasant
and pinkish, and in his eyes you saw no haven for
fleeing Romance.
That window of Ravenel's apartment opened upon
an old garden full of ancient trees and shrubbery.
 The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tanach: Jeremiah 23: 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say: 'As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt';
Jeremiah 23: 8 but: 'As the LORD liveth, that brought up and that led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them'; and they shall dwell in their own land.
Jeremiah 23: 9 Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome; because of the LORD, and because of His holy words.
Jeremiah 23: 10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
Jeremiah 23: 11 For both prophet and priest are ungodly; yea, in My house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 23: 12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness, they shall be thrust, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 23: 13 And I have seen unseemliness in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal, and caused My people Israel to err.
Jeremiah 23: 14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies, and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, that none doth return from his wic  The Tanach |