| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: With a gasp of dismay young Richard twisted in his chair to confront
this fresh and unsuspected antagonist. What danger was this that he
had overlooked? Then, even as he turned, Wilding's voice fell on his
ear, and each word of the few he spoke was like a drop of icy water
on Westmacott's overheated brain.
"I protest you are vastly kind, Nick. But I intend, myself, to have
the pleasure of killing Mr. Westmacott." And his smile fell now in
mockery upon the disillusioned lad.
Crushed by that bolt from the blue, Richard sat as if stunned, the
flush receding from his face until his very lips were livid. The shock
had sobered him, and, sobered, he realized in terror what he had done.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White:
"What was that?" she asked quickly, in a subdued voice.
"A coyote--one of them little wolves," he explained.
The horses' hoofs rang clear on a hardened bit of the alkali
crust, then dully as they encountered again the dust of the
plain. Vast, vague, mysterious in the silence of night, filled
with strange influences breathing through space like damp winds,
the desert took them to the heart of her great spaces.
|
