| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: big horse, tall and bony, with long legs and large knees and feet.
She could count his ribs easily where they showed through the skin of
his body, and his head was long and seemed altogether too big for him,
as if it did not fit. His tail was short and scraggly, and his
harness had been broken in many places and fastened together again
with cords and bits of wire. The buggy seemed almost new, for it had
a shiny top and side curtains. Getting around in front, so that she
could look inside, the girl saw a boy curled up on the seat, fast asleep.
She set down the bird-cage and poked the boy with her parasol.
Presently he woke up, rose to a sitting position and rubbed
his eyes briskly.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: He was not exactly a showy figure; his shoulders were high,
his stature but middling--one leg slightly more bandy
than the other. He shook hands, looking vaguely around.
A spiritless tenacity was his main characteristic, I judged.
I behaved with a politeness which seemed to disconcert him.
Perhaps he was shy. He mumbled to me as if he were ashamed of
what he was saying; gave his name (it was something like Archbold--
but at this distance of years I hardly am sure), his ship's name,
and a few other particulars of that sort, in the manner
of a criminal making a reluctant and doleful confession.
He had had terrible weather on the passage out--terrible--terrible--
The Secret Sharer |
