| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: bared to the frost and naked hands grasping the sacred book,
Fortune La Pearle swore him to the words he had spoken--an oath
which Uri Bram never intended breaking, and never broke.
At the door of the shack the gambler hesitated for an instant,
marvelling at the strangeness of this man who had befriended him,
and doubting. But by the candlelight he found the cabin
comfortable and without occupants, and he was quickly rolling a
cigarette while the other man made coffee. His muscles relaxed in
the warmth and he lay back with half-assumed indolence, intently
studying Uri's face through the curling wisps of smoke. It was a
powerful face, but its strength was of that peculiar sort which
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: a dead drooping hand, which hung there convulsed and helpless,
as though it had been thrust forth in denunciation of some evil
mystery within the house, and had sunk struggling into death.
A girl who was drawing water from the well in the court said that
the English doctor lived on the first floor, and Wyant, passing
through a glazed door, mounted the damp degrees of a vaulted
stairway with a plaster AEsculapius mouldering in a niche on the
landing. Facing the AEsculapius was another door, and as Wyant
put his hand on the bell-rope he remembered his unknown friend's
injunction, and rang twice.
His ring was answered by a peasant woman with a low forehead and
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