| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: dislike of learning, and he has permitted me to undertake a voyage
of discovery to the land of knowledge."
"It gives me the greatest delight to see you; but tell me how you
left my father, brothers, and Elizabeth."
"Very well, and very happy, only a little uneasy that they hear
from you so seldom. By the by, I mean to lecture you a little upon
their account myself. But, my dear Frankenstein," continued he,
stopping short and gazing full in my face, "I did not before remark
how very ill you appear; so thin and pale; you look as if you had
been watching for several nights."
"You have guessed right; I have lately been so deeply engaged
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: was the popular feeling against anything approaching
"abolitionism" that only one man out of the five who voted
against the resolution had the courage to sign this protest with
him. Lincoln was young, poor, and in need of all the good-will at
his command. Nobody could have blamed him for leaving it
unwritten; yet he felt the wrong of slavery so keenly that he
could not keep silent merely because the views he held happened
to be unpopular; and this protest, signed by him and Dan Stone,
has come down to us, the first notable public act in the great
career that made his name immortal.
During the eight years that he was in the legislature he had been
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