| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: appearance in the glare of the gas of the figure of the man for
whom he waited. He saw himself rise and run forward. He
remembered the feel and weight in his hand of Caraher's bomb--the
six inches of plugged gas pipe. His upraised arm shot forward.
There was a shiver of smashed window-panes, then--a void--a red
whirl of confusion, the air rent, the ground rocking, himself
flung headlong, flung off the spinning circumference of things
out into a place of terror and vacancy and darkness. And then
after a long time the return of reason, the consciousness that
his feet were set upon the road to Los Muertos, and that he was
fleeing terror-stricken, gasping, all but insane with hysteria.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: falls. If the current once mastered our engines, we should inevitably
disappear in the gulf nearly two hundred feet deep which the waters
have dug at the base of the falls! Perhaps, however, our captain had
still power to turn to one of the shores and flee by the automobile
routes.
In the midst of this excitement, what action should I take
personally? Should I attempt to gain the shores of Navy Island, if we
indeed advanced that far? If I did not seize this chance, never after
what I had learned of his secrets, never would the Master of the
World restore me to liberty.
I suspected, however, that my flight was no longer possible. If I was
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