| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: visitors."
"A client, then?"
"If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out
on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more
likely to be some crony of the landlady's."
Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there
came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He
stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and
towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit.
"Come in!" said he.
The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the
 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: "Perfectly so, madame, for his majesty's kindness to me is
unbounded."
"It cannot," said the queen, "be because your fortune has
diminished, for it is said to be enormous."
"My income, madame, has never been so large."
"There is some secret cause, then?"
"No, madame," said Buckingham, eagerly, "there is nothing
secret in my reason for this determination. I prefer
residence in France; I like a court so distinguished by its
refinement and courtesy; I like the amusements, somewhat
serious in their nature, which are not the amusements of my
 Ten Years Later |