| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: one of those moods of perverse merriment which, whenever they
occurred, seemed to remove her entirely out of the sphere of
sympathy or human contact. She now skipped irreverently from one
grave to another; until coming to the broad, flat, armorial
tombstone of a departed worthy -- perhaps of Isaac Johnson
himself -- she began to dance upon it. In reply to her mother's
command and entreaty that she would behave more decorously,
little Pearl paused
The Scarlet Letter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: and her white shoulder were in the sun, and all the grace of her
body was in the cool blue shadow. She was dressed--how can I describe
it? It was easy and flowing. And altogether there she stood, so that
it came to me how beautiful and desirable she was, as though I had
never seen her before. And when at last I sighed and raised myself
upon my arm she turned her face to me--"
He stopped.
"I have lived three-and-fifty years in this world. I have had mother,
sisters, friends, wife, and daughters--all their faces, the play
of their faces, I know. But the face of this girl--it is much more
real to me. I can bring it back into memory so that I see it
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