| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: And here and there his raging eyes he roll'd.
He gnash'd his teeth; and thrice he compass'd round
With winged speed the circuit of the ground.
Thrice at the cavern's mouth he pull'd in vain,
And, panting, thrice desisted from his pain.
A pointed flinty rock, all bare and black,
Grew gibbous from behind the mountain's back;
Owls, ravens, all ill omens of the night,
Here built their nests, and hither wing'd their flight.
The leaning head hung threat'ning o'er the flood,
And nodded to the left. The hero stood
Aeneid |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: Glennard, carefully measuring his second cup of tea, said, with
deliberation, "I didn't know you cared about that sort of thing."
She was, in fact, not a great reader, and a new book seldom
reached her till it was, so to speak, on the home stretch; but she
replied, with a gentle tenacity, "I think it would interest me
because I read her life last year."
"Her life? Where did you get that?"
"Someone lent it to me when it came out--Mr. Flamel, I think."
His first impulse was to exclaim, "Why the devil do you borrow
books of Flamel? I can buy you all you want--" but he felt
himself irresistibly forced into an attitude of smiling
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