| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: who'd know what he meant and hear this damned scuffle ... then
the scuffling grew suddenly nearer, and a black cloud settled
over the moon. When again the pale sheen skimmed the cornices, it
was almost beside him, and Amory thought he heard a quiet
breathing. Suddenly he realized that the footsteps were not
behind, had never been behind, they were ahead and he was not
eluding but following ... following. He began to run, blindly,
his heart knocking heavily, his hands clinched. Far ahead a black
dot showed itself, resolved slowly into a human shape. But Amory
was beyond that now; he turned off the street and darted into an
alley, narrow and dark and smelling of old rottenness. He twisted
 This Side of Paradise |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: "We won't have Borodaty! To the evil one's mother with Borodaty!"
"Shout Kirdyanga!" whispered Taras Bulba to several.
"Kirdyanga, Kirdyanga!" shouted the crowd. "Borodaty, Borodaty!
Kirdyanga, Kirdyanga! Schilo! Away with Schilo! Kirdyanga!"
All the candidates, on hearing their names mentioned, quitted the
crowd, in order not to give any one a chance of supposing that they
were personally assisting in their election.
"Kirdyanga, Kirdyanga!" echoed more strongly than the rest.
"Borodaty!"
They proceeded to decide the matter by a show of hands, and Kirdyanga
won.
 Taras Bulba and Other Tales |