| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: sitting on his boots. He grinned at them and lay back again, but
he found himself fully awake and very uncomfortable. He lay there,
contemplating his own folly, and demanding of himself almost
fiercely what he had expected to get out of all this effort and
misery. For ten days or so men had come here. Wilkins had come,
for one, and there had been others. And had found nothing, and had
gone away. And now he was there, the end of the procession, to
look for God knows what.
He pulled the raincoat up around his shoulders, and lay back stiffly.
Then - he was not an imaginative man - he began to feel that eyes
were staring at him, furtive, hidden eyes, intently watching him.
The Breaking Point |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: mildly. "Could I begin with the sacramental words, 'I was born
on such a date in such a place'? The remoteness of the locality
would have robbed the statement of all interest. I haven't lived
through wonderful adventures to be related seriatim. I haven't
known distinguished men on whom I could pass fatuous remarks. I
haven't been mixed up with great or scandalous affairs. This is
but a bit of psychological document, and even so, I haven't
written it with a view to put forward any conclusion of my own."
But my objector was not placated. These were good reasons for
not writing at all--not a defence of what stood written already,
he said.
Some Reminiscences |
