| 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: had--with a glance at his own postal resources and alternatives--
formed, up to this stage, the subject of their talk. "Well, here
we are, and it may be right enough; but this isn't the least, you
know, where I was going."
"You were going home?"
"Yes, and I was already rather late. I was going to my supper."
"You haven't had it?"
"No indeed!"
"Then you haven't eaten--?"
He looked of a sudden so extravagantly concerned that she laughed
out. "All day? Yes, we do feed once. But that was long ago. So
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: done he began to whistle a Jacobite air. It was the air made in
mockery of General Cope's defeat at Preston Pans:
"Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin' yet?
And are your drums a-beatin' yet?"
And it came in my mind that Alan, on the day of that battle, had
been engaged upon the royal side.
"Why do ye take that air, Mr. Stewart?" said I. "Is that to
remind me you have been beaten on both sides?"
The air stopped on Alan's lips. "David!" said he.
"But it's time these manners ceased," I continued; "and I mean
you shall henceforth speak civilly of my King and my good friends
 Kidnapped |