The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: all-feminine trait which has come down through all the ages
from the first lady of the world--curiosity. Ajor desired that
I should speak her tongue in order that she might satisfy a
curiosity concerning me that was filling her to a point where
she was in danger of bursting; of that I was positive. She was
a regular little animated question-mark. She bubbled over
with interrogations which were never to be satisfied unless
I learned to speak her tongue. Her eyes sparkled with
excitement; her hand flew in expressive gestures; her little
tongue raced with time; yet all to no avail. I could say man
and tree and cliff and lion and a number of
 The People That Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw: aye, envied for the variety and liveliness of my job, by the poor
devil of a bookkeeper that has to copy all my entries over again.
Fifty thousand entries a year that poor wretch makes; and not ten out
of the fifty thousand ever has to be referred to again; and when all
the figures are counted up and the balance sheet made out, the boss
isnt a penny the richer than he'd be if bookkeeping had never been
invented. Of all the damnable waste of human life that ever was
invented, clerking is the very worst.
TARLETON. Why not join the territorials?
THE MAN. Because I shouldnt be let. He hasnt even the sense to see
that it would pay him to get some cheap soldiering out of me. How can
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