| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Was left me then but a soul that mingled
Itself with hers, and swayed and shuddered
In fearful triumph. When I consider
That helpless love and the cursed folly
That wrecked my life for the sake of a woman
Who broke with a laugh the chains of her marriage
(Whatever the word may mean), I wonder
If all the woe was her sin, or whether
The chains themselves were enough to lead her
In love's despite to break them. . . . Sinners
And saints -- I say -- are rocked in the cradle,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: for her than could have been expected.
CHAPTER 13
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
have now passed in review before the reader; the events of
each day, its hopes and fears, mortifications and pleasures,
have been separately stated, and the pangs of Sunday
only now remain to be described, and close the week.
The Clifton scheme had been deferred, not relinquished,
and on the afternoon's crescent of this day, it was
brought forward again. In a private consultation between
Isabella and James, the former of whom had particularly
 Northanger Abbey |