| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: apparently all the deeper.
A shudder ran over Joe's frame. Fascinated, he watched the guard. The Indian
uttered a low gasp; his eyes started and glared wildly; he rose very slowly to
his full height and stood waiting, listening. The dark hand which held the
tomahawk trembled so that little glints of moonlight glanced from the bright
steel.
From far back in the forest-deeps came that same low moaning:
"Um-m-mm-woo-o-o-o!"
It rose from a faint murmur and swelled to a deep moan, soft but clear, and
ended in a wail like that of a lost soul.
The break it made in that dead silence was awful. Joe's blood seemed to have
 The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: becoming, but it is in a state of becoming because it becomes; neither does
it suffer because it is in a state of suffering, but it is in a state of
suffering because it suffers. Do you not agree?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: Is not that which is loved in some state either of becoming or
suffering?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: And the same holds as in the previous instances; the state of
being loved follows the act of being loved, and not the act the state.
EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And what do you say of piety, Euthyphro: is not piety,
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