| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: followed his profession, and he was
expected to be interested in a great many
worthy endeavors on her account as well as
on his own. His existence was becoming a
network of great and little details. He had
expected that success would bring him
freedom and power; but it had brought only
power that was in itself another kind of
restraint. He had always meant to keep his
personal liberty at all costs, as old MacKeller,
his first chief, had done, and not, like so
Alexander's Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: cease from giving escort to men; and I would overshadow
their city with a great mountain.'
And Zeus the gatherer of the clouds, answered him, saying:
'Friend, learn now what seems best in my sight. At an hour
when the folk are all looking forth from the city at the
ship upon her way, smite her into a stone hard by the land;
a stone in the likeness of a swift ship, that all mankind
may marvel, and do thou overshadow their city with a great
mountain.'
Now when Poseidon, shaker of the earth, heard this saying,
he went on his way to Scheria, where the Phaeacians dwell.
The Odyssey |
