| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: be caught in the shade, covered with a profusion of projections formed like
so many pendants. This cavern was a picturesque mixture of all the styles
of Byzantine, Roman, or Gothic architecture ever produced by the hand of
man. And yet this was only the work of nature. She alone had hollowed this
fairy Aihambra in a mass of granite.
The settlers were overwhelmed with admiration. Where they had only
expected to find a narrow cavity, they had found a sort of marvelous
palace, and Neb had taken off his hat, as if he had been transported into a
temple!
Cries of admiration issued from every mouth. Hurrahs resounded, and the
echo was repeated again and again till it died away in the dark naves.
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: more would transform her whole social position. On its being asked
of her then if she circulated only in a sort of tropical solitude,
with the upper servants for picturesque natives, and on her having
to assent to this glance at her limitations, she had found a reply
to the girl's invidious question. "You've no imagination, my
dear!"--that was because a door more than half open to the higher
life couldn't be called anything but a thin partition. Mrs.
Jordan's imagination quite did away with the thickness.
Our young lady had not taken up the charge, had dealt with it good-
humouredly, just because she knew so well what to think of it. It
was at once one of her most cherished complaints and most secret
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