| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: the old people's minds had been affected by their sudden good
fortune; the sharp and watchful gaze which they bent upon her
frightened her, and that completed the business. She blushed, she
became nervous and confused, and to the old people these were plain
signs of guilt--guilt of some fearful sort or other--without doubt
she was a spy and a traitor. When they were alone again they began
to piece many unrelated things together and get horrible results out
of the combination. When things had got about to the worst Richards
was delivered of a sudden gasp and his wife asked:
"Oh, what is it?--what is it?"
"The note--Burgess's note! Its language was sarcastic, I see it
 The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: to ourselves, what are we unless a pasteboard portico and a
deliquium of deadly weaknesses within?'
'I? yes,' said Otto; 'but you, Gotthold - you, with your
interminable industry, your keen mind, your books - serving mankind,
scorning pleasures and temptations! You do not know how I envy
you.'
'Otto,' said the Doctor, 'in one word, and a bitter one to say: I am
a secret tippler. Yes, I drink too much. The habit has robbed
these very books, to which you praise my devotion, of the merits
that they should have had. It has spoiled my temper. When I spoke
to you the other day, how much of my warmth was in the cause of
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