| 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: "Blister me!" he cried. "Must I sweep the cloth from the table before
you'll understand me?"
"If you were to do anything so unmannerly I should have you flung out
of the house," said Mr. Wilding, "and it would distress me so to treat
a person of your station and quality. The hat shall serve your purpose,
although Mr. Trenchard's concern for my table has removed it. Our
memories will supply its absence. What colour did you say it was?"
"I said it was green," answered Blake, quite ready to keep to the point.
"Nay, I am sure you were wrong," said Wilding with a grave air.
"Although I admit that since it is your own hat, you should be the best
judge of its colour, I am, nevertheless, of opinion that it is black."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: a lie. A boy was pulling along a little girl and a baby in a
sledge. Another boy of three, with his head wrapped up like a
peasant woman's and with huge mufflers on his hands, was trying
to catch the flying snowflakes on his tongue, and laughing. Then
a wagon loaded with fagots came toward us and a peasant walking
beside it, and there was no telling whether his beard was white
or whether it was covered with snow. He recognized my coachman,
smiled at him and said something, and mechanically took off his
hat to me. The dogs ran out of the yards and looked inquisitively
at my horses. Everything was quiet, ordinary, as usual. The
emigrants had returned, there was no bread; in the huts "some
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