| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: Gospels to the peasants in the village, and to discuss them with
his friends. The priests regarded this as a crime and informed
the authorities. The magistrate examined him and the public
prosecutor drew up an act of indictment, and the law courts
committed him for trial.
"This is really too terrible," Nekhludoff said. "Can it be true?"
"What are you surprised at?"
"Why, everything. I can understand the police-officer, who simply
obeys orders, but the prosecutor drawing up an act of that kind.
An educated man . . ."
"That is where the mistake lies, that we are in the habit of
Resurrection |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: down the valley till I fell asleep.
On the whole, this is a Scottish landscape, although not so noble as
the best in Scotland; and by an odd coincidence, the population is,
in its way, as Scottish as the country. They have abrupt, uncouth,
Fifeshire manners, and accost you, as if you were trespassing, an
'Ou'st-ce que vous allez?' only translatable into the Lowland 'Whaur
ye gaun?' They keep the Scottish Sabbath. There is no labour done
on that day but to drive in and out the various pigs and sheep and
cattle that make so pleasant a tinkling in the meadows. The lace-
makers have disappeared from the street. Not to attend mass would
involve social degradation; and you may find people reading Sunday
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