| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: hours out of the twenty-four you ought to have burrowed outside
the gates in about five years."
Jill shuddered. " Austria would be rather nice, just now,
wouldn't it?" she ventured.
"We could go high up if it got hot, of course," said Daphne
slowly, "and the air's nice- "
I'll find out what we do about shipping the car on Friday," said
Berry.
I must have been tired, for I never heard the tea-things taken
away. When I opened my eyes, Berry and Co. had gone. I looked
at the jig-saw and began to wonder what had waked me.
 The Brother of Daphne |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: indications of his dress, so in England this identification was as
little as possible a matter of course, thanks to the greater
conformity, the habit of sinking the profession instead of
advertising it, the general diffusion of the air of the gentleman -
the gentleman committed to no particular set of ideas. More than
once, on returning to his own country, he had said to himself about
people met in society: "One sees them in this place and that, and
one even talks with them; but to find out what they DO one would
really have to be a detective." In respect to several individuals
whose work he was the opposite of "drawn to" - perhaps he was wrong
- he found himself adding "No wonder they conceal it - when it's so
|