| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: its parterres of sponges, and its forests of coral?
Did you catch a glimpse of the towns on its borders?"
"Yes, Captain Nemo," I replied; "and the Nautilus is wonderfully
fitted for such a study. Ah! it is an intelligent boat!"
"Yes, sir, intelligent and invulnerable. It fears neither
the terrible tempests of the Red Sea, nor its currents,
nor its sandbanks."
"Certainly," said I, "this sea is quoted as one of the worst,
and in the time of the ancients, if I am not mistaken,
its reputation was detestable."
"Detestable, M. Aronnax. The Greek and Latin historians
 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: captain. She was sitting in the first row of the stalls beside
her papa; she was ecstatic and could not take her eyes off the
stage even between the acts. Her delicate little hands and feet
were quivering, her eyes were full of tears, her cheeks turned
paler and paler. And no wonder -- she was at the theatre for the
first time in her life.
"How well they act! how splendidly!" she said to her papa the
police captain, every time the curtain fell. How good Fenogenov
is!"
And if her papa had been capable of reading faces he would have
read on his daughter's pale little countenance a rapture that was
 The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |