| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: endeavoring to guess the intentions of a huntsman, whose orders are
incomprehensible to them though they faithfully obey him, the soldiers
gazed in turn at the valley, at the woods by the roadside, at the
stern face of their leader, endeavoring to read their fate. They
questioned each other with their eyes, and more than one smile ran
from lip to lip.
When Hulot returned to his men with an anxious look, Beau-Pied, a
young sergeant who passed for the wit of his company, remarked in a
low voice: "Where the deuce have we poked ourselves that an old
trooper like Hulot should pull such a gloomy face? He's as solemn as a
council of war."
 The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: how she wanted to thank me fer bringin' you over. Buck, it was
plain to me thet you'd either gone the limit or else you'd been
kinder prodigal of cheer an' hope. I'd hate to think you'd led
Jennie to hope more'n ever would come true."
Euchre paused, and, as there seemed no reply forthcoming, he
went on:
"Buck, I've seen some outlaws whose word was good. Mine is. You
can trust me. I trusted you, didn't I, takin' you over there
an' puttin' you wise to my tryin' to help thet poor kid?"
Thus enjoined by Euchre, Duane began to tell the conversations
with Jennie and Mrs. Bland word for word. Long before he had
 The Lone Star Ranger |