| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: length, "we learned at Singapore the personnel of your party,
which included a former naval officer whom we have been seeking
for many years. We came to your island to arrest this man--
I refer to Doctor Carl von Horn."
When the lieutenant learned of the recent disappearance
of the man he sought, he expressed his determination
to push on at once in pursuit; and as Professor Maxon
feared again to remain unprotected in the heart
of the Bornean wilderness his entire party was taken
aboard the cutter.
A few miles up the river they came upon one of the
 The Monster Men |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: Moreover the rape of the veil disheartened them. Spendius had clearly
foreseen this.
But the nation, feeling that it was hated, clasped its money and its
gods to its heart, and its patriotism was sustained by the very
constitution of its government.
First, the power rested with all, without any one being strong enough
to engross it. Private debts were considered as public debts, men of
Chanaanitish race had a monopoly of commerce, and by multiplying the
profits of piracy with those of usury, by hard dealings in lands and
slaves and with the poor, fortunes were sometimes made. These alone
opened up all the magistracies, and although authority and money were
 Salammbo |