| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: prisoners need not learn unless they like. Nay, it is sometimes
remarked that the school dunce--meaning the one who does not
like--often turns out well afterwards, as if idleness were a sign of
ability and character. A much more sensible explanation is that the
so-called dunces are not exhausted before they begin the serious
business of life. It is said that boys will be boys; and one can only
add one wishes they would. Boys really want to be manly, and are
unfortunately encouraged thoughtlessly in this very dangerous and
overstraining aspiration. All the people who have really worked
(Herbert Spencer for instance) warn us against work as earnestly as
some people warn us against drink. When learning is placed on the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: single acquaintance--when, all the while, that was what she had
me there for, and what she wrote me a handsome cheque for when
the season was over!"
Mrs. Fisher was not a woman who talked of herself without cause,
and the practice of direct speech, far from precluding in her an
occasional resort to circuitous methods, served rather, at
crucial moments, the purpose of the juggler's chatter while he
shifts the contents of his sleeves. Through the haze of her
cigarette smoke she continued to gaze meditatively at Miss Bart,
who, having dismissed her maid, sat before the
toilet-table shaking out over her shoulders the loosened
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