The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: indefinitely. The smoking of a cigarette converted Hoopdriver's
hero into something entirely worldly, subtly rakish, with a
humorous twinkle in the eye and some gallant sinning in the
background. You should have seen Mr. Hoopdriver promenading the
brilliant gardens at Earl's Court on an early-closing night. His
meaning glances! (I dare not give the meaning.) Such an influence
as the eloquence of a revivalist preacher would suffice to divert
the story into absolutely different channels, make him a
white-soured hero, a man still pure, walking untainted and brave
and helpful through miry ways. The appearance of some daintily
gloved frockcoated gentleman with buttonhole and eyeglass
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: convince him? Surely a plain statement of facts followed by
ocular demonstration ought to suffice. -- Now, Sir; listen to me.
You are living on a Plane. What you style Flatland is
the vast level surface of what I may call a fluid, on, or in,
the top of which you and your countrymen move about,
without rising above it or falling below it.
I am not a plane Figure, but a Solid. You call me a Circle;
but in reality I am not a Circle, but an infinite number of Circles,
of size varying from a Point to a Circle of thirteen inches
in diameter, one placed on the top of the other. When I cut through
your plane as I am now doing, I make in your plane a section
 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |