| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: passengers slackened their pace, and were disposed to linger near
it; neighbours who had got up splenetic that morning, felt good-
humour stealing on them as they heard it, and by degrees became
quite sprightly; mothers danced their babies to its ringing; still
the same magical tink, tink, tink, came gaily from the workshop of
the Golden Key.
Who but the locksmith could have made such music! A gleam of sun
shining through the unsashed window, and chequering the dark
workshop with a broad patch of light, fell full upon him, as though
attracted by his sunny heart. There he stood working at his anvil,
his face all radiant with exercise and gladness, his sleeves turned
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: We've been playing a game of checkers with human souls. We've an
awful responsibility. Suppose he kills her some time?"
"Fiddlesticks, Condy! And, besides, if we've done wrong with our
matrimonial objects, we've offset it by doing well with our red-
headed coincidence. How do you know, you may have 'foiled a
villain' with that telegram--prevented a crime?"
Condy grinned at the recollection of the incident.
"'Fly at once,'" he repeated. "I guess he's flying yet. 'All is
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