| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: had enjoyed in the comparative repose and abundance of the river.
For three days longer they continued to navigate with their
rafts. The recent storm had rendered the weather extremely cold.
They had now floated down the river about ninety-one miles, when
finding the mountains on the right diminished to moderate sized
hills, they landed, and prepared to resume their journey on foot.
Accordingly, having spent a day in preparations, making
moccasins, and parceling out their jerked meat in packs of twenty
pounds to each man, they turned their backs upon the river on the
29th of September and struck off to the northeast, keeping along
the southern skirt of the mountain on which Henry's Fort was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: a powerful challenge, at odds, and split asunder.
To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free:
we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not
have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny.
We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view.
But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their
own freedom. . .and to remember that. . .in the past. . .those who
foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe
struggling to break the bonds of mass misery: we pledge our best
efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period
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