| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: born: why should he welcome me now?'
Then he thought a long while sadly; and at the last he cried
aloud, 'Yes! I will make him love me; for I will prove
myself worthy of his love. I will win honour and renown, and
do such deeds that AEgeus shall be proud of me, though he had
fifty other sons! Did not Heracles win himself honour,
though he was opprest, and the slave of Eurystheus? Did he
not kill all robbers and evil beasts, and drain great lakes
and marshes, breaking the hills through with his club?
Therefore it was that all men honoured him, because he rid
them of their miseries, and made life pleasant to them and
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: I never imagined that Idaho was trying to work on Mrs. Sampson with
old K. M.'s rules of courtship till one afternoon when I was on my way
over to take her a basket of wild hog-plums. I met the lady coming
down the lane that led to her house. Her eyes was snapping, and her
hat made a dangerous dip over one eye.
"Mr. Pratt," she opens up, "this Mr. Green is a friend of yours, I
believe."
"For nine years," says I.
"Cut him out," says she. "He's no gentleman!"
"Why ma'am," says I, "he's a plain incumbent of the mountains, with
asperities and the usual failings of a spendthrift and a liar, but I
Heart of the West |
