| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: to make a bowl of chocolate for myself. My boots and gaiters were
hung up to dry, and, seeing me trying to write my journal on my
knee, the eldest daughter let down a hinged table in the chimney-
corner for my convenience. Here I wrote, drank my chocolate, and
finally ate an omelette before I left. The table was thick with
dust; for, as they explained, it was not used except in winter
weather. I had a clear look up the vent, through brown
agglomerations of soot and blue vapour, to the sky; and whenever a
handful of twigs was thrown on to the fire, my legs were scorched
by the blaze.
The husband had begun life as a muleteer, and when I came to charge
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: proceeded to hop slowly upward in search of sympathy.
"You have hurt that dog," said Gregory.
"Have I?" she replied indifferently, and re-opened the book, as though to
resume her study of the play.
"He's a nasty, snappish little cur!" said Gregory, calculating from her
manner that the remark would be endorsed. "He snapped at my horse's tail
yesterday, and nearly made it throw me. I wonder his master didn't take
him, instead of leaving him here to be a nuisance to all of us!"
Lyndall seemed absorbed in her play; but he ventured another remark.
"Do you think now, Miss Lyndall, that he'll ever have anything in the
world--that German. I mean--money enough to support a wife on, and all
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