| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: finger I still hold you suspended over death; my life is full
of labour and anxiety; and I choose,' said he, with a
remarkable accent of command, 'that you shall greet me with a
pleasant face.' He never needed to repeat the
recommendation; from that day forward I was always ready to
receive him with apparent cheerfulness; and he rewarded me
with a good deal of his company, and almost more than I could
bear of his confidence. He had set up a laboratory in the
back part of the house, where he toiled day and night at his
elixir, and he would come thence to visit me in my parlour:
now with passing humours of discouragement; now, and far more
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: these letters here (they have been realised), ten thousand Athenian
drachmas, and twelve Syrian talents of gold. The food for the crews,
amounting to twenty minae a month for each trireme--"
"I know! How many lost?"
"Here is the account on these sheets of lead," said the Steward. "As
to the ships chartered in common, it has often been necessary to throw
the cargo into the seas, and so the unequal losses have been divided
among the partners. For the ropes which were borrowed from the
arsenals, and which it was impossible to restore, the Syssitia exacted
eight hundred kesitahs before the expedition to Utica."
"They again!" said Hamilcar, hanging his head; and he remained for a
Salammbo |
