| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: Into this cove the _Dobryna_ was duly signaled, and as soon as she
was safely moored, she lowered her four-oar, and Count Timascheff and
Captain Servadac made their way at once to land.
Colonel Heneage Finch Murphy and Major Sir John Temple Oliphant stood,
grave and prim, formally awaiting the arrival of their visitors.
Captain Servadac, with the uncontrolled vivacity natural to a Frenchman,
was the first to speak.
"A joyful sight, gentlemen!" he exclaimed. "It will give us unbounded
pleasure to shake hands again with some of our fellow-creatures. You,
no doubt, have escaped the same disaster as ourselves."
But the English officers, neither by word nor gesture, made the slightest
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: through the iron.'
Then the wise Penelope answered him: 'Stranger, if only
thou wert willing still to sit beside me in the halls and
to delight me, not upon my eyelids would sleep be shed. But
men may in no wise abide sleepless ever, for the immortals
have made a time for all things for mortals on the
grain-giving earth. Howbeit I will go aloft to my upper
chamber, and lay me on my bed, the place of my groanings,
that is ever watered by my tears, since the day that
Odysseus went to see that evil Ilios, never to be named.
There will I lay me down, but do thou lie in this house;
 The Odyssey |