| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: on the sly with your infernal don't-care-a-damn way of looking
nowhere in particular, and saying nothing at all. . . . "
His husky domestic voice ceased for a while. Mrs Verloc made no
reply. Before that silence he felt ashamed of what he had said.
But as often happens to peaceful men in domestic tiffs, being
ashamed he pushed another point.
"You have a devilish way of holding your tongue sometimes," he
began again, without raising his voice. "Enough to make some men
go mad. It's lucky for you that I am not so easily put out as some
of them would be by your deaf-and-dumb sulks. I am fond of you.
But don't you go too far. This isn't the time for it. We ought to
The Secret Agent |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: my books, was to drink goats' urine every morning; I know not
whether he found any benefit by following my prescription, for I
never saw him after.
Being under a necessity of obeying our acoba, or protector, we
changed our place of abode as often as he desired it, though not
without great inconveniences, from the excessive heat of the weather
and the faintness which our strict observation of the fasts and
austerities of Lent, as it is kept in this country, had brought upon
us. At length, wearied with removing so often, and finding that the
last place assigned for our abode was always the worst, we agreed
that I should go to our sovereign and complain.
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