| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: sorry to hear that. What's the trouble, Pres?"
"Oh, nerves mostly, I suppose, and my head, and insomnia, and
weakness, a general collapse all along the line, the doctor tells
me. 'Over-cerebration,' he says; 'over-excitement.' I fancy I
rather narrowly missed brain fever."
"Well, I can easily suppose it," answered Cedarquist gravely,
"after all you have been through."
Presley closed his eyes--they were sunken in circles of dark
brown flesh--and pressed a thin hand to the back of his head.
"It is a nightmare," he murmured. "A frightful nightmare, and
it's not over yet. You have heard of it all only through the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: "That belonged to the giraffe."
After a pause he went on:--
"The beasts had all these things. I took them away from them.
It didn't trouble them. I told them: `It's for the elephant.'"
He paused, and then resumed:--
"You crawl over the walls and you don't care a straw for the government.
So there now!"
The two children gazed with timid and stupefied respect on this
intrepid and ingenious being, a vagabond like themselves,
isolated like themselves, frail like themselves, who had something
admirable and all-powerful about him, who seemed supernatural
Les Miserables |
