| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: their
hardness and coldness.
"Tell me, then," he cried, brokenly, "since my life has been so
little worth, how came I here at all?"
"Through the mercy of the King"--the answer was like the soft
tolling of
a bell.
"And how have I earned it?" he murmured.
"It is never earned; it is only given," came the clear, low
reply.
"But how have I failed so wretchedly," he asked, "in all the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: and was again refused; and having now been used for the last two
months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of
solitude to weigh upon his spirits. The fifth night he had in
Guest to dine with him; and the sixth he betook himself to Dr.
Lanyon's.
There at least he was not denied admittance; but when he came
in, he was shocked at the change which had taken place in the
doctor's appearance. He had his death-warrant written legibly
upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen
away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much
these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer's
 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |