| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: afforded me the first glimpse of his real character. Without
further preliminaries than a friendly nod, he addressed me: "You
have got her pretty well in her fore and aft trim. Now, what about
your weights?"
I told him I had managed to keep the weight sufficiently well up,
as I thought, one-third of the whole being in the upper part "above
the beams," as the technical expression has it. He whistled
"Phew!" scrutinizing me from head to foot. A sort of smiling
vexation was visible on his ruddy face.
"Well, we shall have a lively time of it this passage, I bet," he
said.
 The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: Alphonsists were attacking the right flank of our whole front and
there was some considerable disorder there. I mounted her on a
mule and her maid on another. We spent one night in a ruined old
tower occupied by some of our infantry and got away at daybreak
under the Alphonsist shells. The maid nearly died of fright and
one of the troopers with us was wounded. To smuggle her back
across the frontier was another job but it wasn't my job. It
wouldn't have done for her to appear in sight of French frontier
posts in the company of Carlist uniforms. She seems to have a
fearless streak in her nature. At one time as we were climbing a
slope absolutely exposed to artillery fire I asked her on purpose,
 The Arrow of Gold |