The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: forward, two-thirds of the night are already spent, and the third
is alone left us."
They then put on their armour. Brave Thrasymedes provided the son
of Tydeus with a sword and a shield (for he had left his own at
his ship) and on his head he set a helmet of bull's hide without
either peak or crest; it is called a skull-cap and is a common
headgear. Meriones found a bow and quiver for Ulysses, and on his
head he set a leathern helmet that was lined with a strong
plaiting of leathern thongs, while on the outside it was thickly
studded with boar's teeth, well and skilfully set into it; next
the head there was an inner lining of felt. This helmet had been
 The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: and a spark of green light in either eye, seeking approval. His
wife appeared now and again in the doorway of the room, where she
was superintending dinner, with a 'Henri, you forget yourself,' or
a 'Henri, you can surely talk without making such a noise.'
Indeed, that was what the honest fellow could not do. On the most
trifling matter his eyes kindled, his fist visited the table, and
his voice rolled abroad in changeful thunder. I never saw such a
petard of a man; I think the devil was in him. He had two
favourite expressions: 'it is logical,' or illogical, as the case
might be: and this other, thrown out with a certain bravado, as a
man might unfurl a banner, at the beginning of many a long and
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