| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: the speakers professed to believe. My listening mind went back
to the politicians in the saloon, who wasted no time in talking
about freedom, but quietly made arrangements to impose their will
on the citizens.
"The judge is a great man, but give thy presents to the clerk,"
as the proverb saith.
And what more remains to tell? I cannot write connectedly,
because I am in love with all those girls aforesaid, and some
others who do not appear in the invoice. The typewriter is an
in-stitution of which the comic papers make much capital, but she
is vastly convenient. She and a companion rent a room in a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: be tall, you would do right, I hold, to cut it half-way down, whereby
the thresher and the winnower will be saved some extra labour (which
both may well be spared).[4] The stalk left standing in the field,
when burnt down (as burnt it will be, I presume), will help to benefit
the soil;[5] and laid on as manure, will serve to swell the volume of
manure.[6]
[4] Lit. "will be spared superfluous labour on what they do not want."
[5] Al. "if burnt down . . .; if laid on as manure . . ."
[6] "Help to swell the bulk" (Holden). For the custom see Virg.
"Georg." i. 84; J. Tull, op. cit. ix. 141: "The custom of burning
the stubble on the rich plains about Rome continues to this time."
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