| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: dogskin coat. The lawyer got out and stopped to watch her.
It was Father Sergius's sixth year as a recluse, and he was now
forty-nine. His life in solitude was hard--not on account of the
fasts and the prayers (they were no hardship to him) but on
account of an inner conflict he had not at all anticipated. The
sources of that conflict were two: doubts, and the lust of the
flesh. And these two enemies always appeared together. It
seemed to him that they were two foes, but in reality they were
one and the same. As soon as doubt was gone so was the lustful
desire. But thinking them to be two different fiends he fought
them separately.
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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 Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any injury to the
priest, who while the fire continues harangues the standers by, and
confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition. When the
pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large
present to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious
mockery.
To return to the course of the Nile: its waters, after the first
rise, run to the eastward for about a musket-shot, then turning to
the north, continue hidden in the grass and weeds for about a
quarter of a league, and discover themselves for the first time
among some rocks--a sight not to be enjoyed without some pleasure by
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