| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: and leaned on one elbow. "You over-eat yourself dreadfully," she said;
"shamelessly! How can you expect the Flame of the Spirit to burn brightly
under layers of superfluous flesh?"
I wished she would not stare at me, and thought of going to look at my
watch again when a little girl wearing a string of coral beads joined us.
"The poor Frau Hauptmann cannot join us to-day," she said; "she has come
out in spots all over on account of her nerves. She was very excited
yesterday after having written two post-cards."
"A delicate woman," volunteered the Hungarian, "but pleasant. Fancy, she
has a separate plate for each of her front teeth! But she has no right to
let her daughters wear such short sailor suits. They sit about on benches,
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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 Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: to fly into the country or shut themselves up. Nay, so far were they
from stirring that they rather received their friends and relations from
the city into their houses, and several from other places really took
sanctuary in that part of the town as a Place of safety, and as a place
which they thought God would pass over, and not visit as the rest was
visited.
And this was the reason that when it came upon -them they were
more surprised, more unprovided, and more at a loss what to do than
they were in other places; for when it came among them really and
with violence, as it did indeed in September and October, there was
then no stirring out into the country, nobody would suffer a stranger to
A Journal of the Plague Year |
