| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: push Madeline gently back into the parlor.
Madeline's glow of warmth changed to a blank dismay. Was she to
see her brother act with the violence she now associated with
cowboys? The clatter of hoofs stopped before the door. Looking
out, Madeline saw a bunch of dusty, wiry horses pawing the gravel
and tossing lean heads. Her swift glance ran over the lithe
horsemen, trying to pick out the one who was her brother. But
she could not. Her glance, however, caught the same rough dress
and hard aspect that characterized the cowboy Stewart. Then one
rider threw his bridle, leaped from the saddle, and came bounding
up the porch steps. Florence met him at the door.
The Light of Western Stars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: melancholy prospect. The noise of waters, the chanting of priests, or
the piping of the wind, were the only sounds that disturbed this
wilderness, where lovers would sometimes meet to discuss their secrets
when the church-folds and clergy were safe in church at the services.
One evening in April in the year 1308, Tirechair came home in a
remarkably bad temper. For three days past everything had been in good
order on the King's highway. Now, as an officer of the peace, nothing
annoyed him so much as to feel himself useless. He flung down his
halbert in a rage, muttered inarticulate words as he pulled off his
doublet, half red and half blue, and slipped on a shabby camlet
jerkin. After helping himself from the bread-box to a hunch of bread,
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