| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: active, clear-headed, fit for their work. Those who habitually
take in the breath which has been breathed out by themselves, or
any other living creature, will certainly grow up, if they grow up
at all, small, weak, pale, nervous, depressed, unfit for work, and
tempted continually to resort to stimulants, and become drunkards.
If you want to see how different the breath breathed out is from
the breath taken in, you have only to try a somewhat cruel
experiment, but one which people too often try upon themselves,
their children, and their workpeople. If you take any small
animal with lungs like your own--a mouse, for instance--and force
it to breathe no air but what you have breathed already; if you
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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 Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: his head and shoulders, and Trot and Button-Bright each
took a leg; among them they partly carried and partly
dragged the damp Scarecrow out of the Ruby Cavern, along
the tunnel, and up the flight of rock steps. It was
somewhat difficult to get him past the edge of the
waterfall, but they succeeded, after much effort, and a
few minutes later laid their poor comrade on a grassy
bank where the sun shone upon him freely and he was
beyond the reach of the spray.
Cap'n Bill now knelt down and examined the straw that
the Scarecrow was stuffed with.
The Scarecrow of Oz |
