| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Over there beyond the ridges and the land that lies between us,
There's an old song calling us to come!
Come away! come away! -- for the scenes we leave behind us
Are barren for the lights of home and a flame that's young forever;
And the lonely trees around us creak the warning of the night-wind,
That love and all the dreams of love are away beyond the mountains.
The songs that call for us to-night, they have called for men before us,
And the winds that blow the message, they have blown ten thousand years;
But this will end our wander-time, for we know the joy that waits us
In the strangeness of home-coming, and a faithful woman's eyes.
Come away! come away! there is nothing now to cheer us --
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: "Yes, oh yes," said Peter.
"What is a Christian?" asked the stranger.
"Well, now, you really do ask such curious questions. A Christian is a man
who believes in Heaven and Hell, and God and the Bible, and in Jesus
Christ, that he'll save him from going to Hell, and if he believes he'll be
saved, he will be saved."
"But here, in this world, what is a Christian?"
"Why," said Peter, "I'm a Christian--we're all Christians."
The stranger looked into the fire; and Peter thought he would change the
subject. "It's curious how like my mother you are; I mean, your ways. She
was always saying to me, 'Don't be too anxious to make money, Peter. Too
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