The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: an heroic light, and egregiously misreading the emotion she had shown
before withdrawing, he was satisfied that did he strike now victory must
attend him. He sighed his satisfaction and pleasurable anticipation.
He had been wary and he had known how to wait; and now, it seemed to him,
he was to be rewarded for his patience. Then he frowned, as another
glance showed him that Diana still lingered with her cousin; he wished
Diana at the devil. He had come to hate this fair-haired doll to whom
he had once paid court. She was too continually in his way, a constant
obstacle in his path, ever ready to remind Ruth of Anthony Wilding when
Sir Rowland most desired Anthony Wilding to be forgotten; and in Diana's
feelings towards himself such a change had been gradually wrought that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: down great ships bigger than our mill, and makes such a roaring
that you can hear it miles away upon the land. There are great
fish in it five times bigger than a bull, and one old serpent as
lone as our river and as old as all the world, with whiskers like a
man, and a crown of silver on her head.'
Will thought he had never heard anything like this, and he kept on
asking question after question about the world that lay away down
the river, with all its perils and marvels, until the old miller
became quite interested himself, and at last took him by the hand
and led him to the hilltop that overlooks the valley and the plain.
The sun was near setting, and hung low down in a cloudless sky.
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