| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: pebbles, sparks flying out on every side.
The road was perfectly deserted. The tarantass en-
countered neither pedestrians nor horsemen, nor a vehicle
of any description, in the narrow defiles of the Ural, on
this threatening night. Not even the fire of a charcoal-
burner was visible in the woods, not an encampment of
miners near the mines, not a hut among the brushwood.
Under these peculiar circumstances it might have been
allowable to postpone the journey till the morning. Michael
Strogoff, however, had not hesitated, he had no right to
stop, but then -- and it began to cause him some anxiety --
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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 Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: probable owner of the house and whether he would
be allowed to remain its tenant. Very soon, how-
ever, his doubt concerning that was set at rest. He
saw a disturbance of the shadows cast by the thick
boughs over the cart path by a long outreach of
darker shadow which he knew at once for that of a
man. He sat upright, and his face at first assumed
a defiant, then a pleading expression, like that of a
child who desires to retain possession of some dear
thing. His heart beat hard as he watched the ad-
vance of the shadow. It was slow, as if cast by an
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