| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The mad rending, the hideous and deafening roaring,
the implacable savagery of the blood-stained
beasts held him in the paralysis of fascination, and when
it was over and the two creatures, their heads and shoulders
torn to ribbons, lay with their dead jaws still buried
in each other's bodies, Carthoris tore himself from the
spell only by an effort of the will.
Hurrying to the side of the dead thoat, he searched for
traces of the girl he feared had shared the thoat's fate,
but nowhere could he discover anything to confirm his fears.
With slightly lightened heart he started out to explore
 Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: in their tone toward Plowden and the Honourable Balder.
The bond between them had twisted in it strands of social
exclusiveness, and strands of sex sympathy.
He did not analyze all this with much closeness in his thoughts,
but the impressions of it were distinct enough to him.
He rather enjoyed these impressions than otherwise.
Women had not often interested him consecutively
to any large degree, either in detail or as a whole.
He had formulated, among other loose general notions
of them, however, the idea that their failure to stand
by one another was one of their gravest weaknesses.
 The Market-Place |