| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: To be filled up with light, and then
Emptied, to be refilled again.
What has man done that only he
Is slave to death -- so brutally
Beaten back into the earth
Impatient for him since his birth?
Oh let me shut my eyes, close out
The sight of stars and earth and be
Sheltered a minute by this tree.
Hemlock, through your fragrant boughs
There moves no anger and no doubt,
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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 Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: his toilet and putting the goldsmith's declaration, with the ring
and the bullet in his pocketbook, he went down to the first floor
of the building, in one wing of which was the apartment occupied by
the Chief. He sent in his name and was told to wait in the little
study. He sat down quietly in a corner of the comfortable little
room beyond which, in a handsomely furnished smoking room, a number
of guests sat playing cards. From the drawing rooms beyond, there
was the sound of music and many voices.
It was all very attractive and comfortable, and the solitary man
sat there enjoying once more the pleasant sensation of triumph, of
joy at the victory that was his alone and that would win him back
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