| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: him, because he knew how to hold his tongue and his pen at the
proper times. There are to-day only eleven men in India who possess
this secret; and they have all, with one exception, attained great
honor and enormous incomes.
This good young man was quiet and self-contained--too old for his
years by far. Which always carries its own punishment. Had a
Subaltern, or a Tea-Planter's Assistant, or anybody who enjoys life
and has no care for to-morrow, done what he tried to do not a soul
would have cared. But when Peythroppe--the estimable, virtuous,
economical, quiet, hard-working, young Peythroppe--fell, there was a
flutter through five Departments.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: favourable Opinion Janetta entertained of him. . . . We at
length agreed to acquaint him with it by an anonymous Letter
which Sophia drew up in the following manner.
"Oh! happy Lover of the beautifull Janetta, oh! amiable
Possessor of HER Heart whose hand is destined to another, why do
you thus delay a confession of your attachment to the amiable
Object of it? Oh! consider that a few weeks will at once put an
end to every flattering Hope that you may now entertain, by
uniting the unfortunate Victim of her father's Cruelty to the
execrable and detested Graham."
"Alas! why do you thus so cruelly connive at the projected
 Love and Friendship |