| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: before the campfire, and once more he appeared composed. He spoke,
and his voice had a deeper note; but otherwise he seemed as usual.
They packed the burros and faced the north together.
Cameron experienced a singular exaltation. He had lightened his
comrade's burden. Wonderfully it came to him that he had also
lightened his own. From that hour it was not torment to think
of Nell. Walking with his comrade through the silent places, lying
beside him under the serene luminous light of the stars, Cameron
began to feel the haunting presence of invisible things that were
real to him--phantoms whispering peace. In the moan of the cool
wind, in the silken seep of sifting sand, in the distant rumble
Desert Gold |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: disappeared. The feast no longer pleased the noble glutton; the dishes
were vulgar, and not sufficiently disguised with delicate flavourings.
After a time his displeasure abated, as he caught sight of a dish of
Syrian lambs' tails, dressed with spices, a favourite dainty.
To Vitellius the character of the Jews seemed frightful. Their God was
like Moloch, several altars to whom he had passed upon his route; and
he recalled the stories he had heard of the mysterious Jew who
fattened small children and offered them as a sacrifice. His Latin
nature was filled with disgust at their intolerance, their
iconoclastic rage, their brutal, stumbling bearing. The proconsul
wished to depart, but Aulus refused to accompany him.
Herodias |
