| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: had policemen in heaven, he would be at least a centurion in the
force. But he did not mean to be unpleasant; it was only that in
a mind full of matters less worldly, pleasure was left out. "I
observed your friend was a skilful horseman," he continued. "I
was saying to Judge Henry that I could wish such skilful horsemen
might ride to a church upon the Sabbath. A church, that is, of
right doctrine, where they would have opportunity to hear
frequent sermons."
"Yes," said Judge Henry, "yes. It would be a good thing."
Mrs. Henry, with some murmur about the kitchen, here went into
the house.
The Virginian |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: granite of law. He was a knight.
The two men went from under the glimmering street-lamp and
passed into shadows.
Turning, Maggie contemplated the dark, dust-stained walls, and
the scant and crude furniture of her home. A clock, in a
splintered and battered oblong box of varnished wood, she suddenly
regarded as an abomination. She noted that it ticked raspingly.
The almost vanished flowers in the carpet-pattern, she conceived to
be newly hideous. Some faint attempts she had made with blue
ribbon, to freshen the appearance of a dingy curtain, she now saw
to be piteous.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
