| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: for awhile, with only a few rough seas to endure and an occasional
shoal to avoid. But then one morning one of the passengers discovered
that the boat was taking on water.
"We're sinking, we're sinking!" some of the people cried.
"No," said the captain, "the flow is not yet so fast. If we will get
some buckets and bail the water out, everything will be all right."
This solution seemed simple enough.
However, a dissension soon arose among the travelers about who would
do the bailing, and what buckets would be used. "Allow me," said
one. "It is my duty in this circumstance to bail, and I have here a
very solid bucket suitable to the task."
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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 Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: Baron de Fontaine; "but a young girl!--No!"
Next day Mademoiselle de Fontaine expressed a wish to take a ride.
Then she gradually accustomed her old uncle and her brothers to
escorting her in very early rides, excellent, she declared for her
health. She had a particular fancy for the environs of the hamlet
where Lady Dudley was living. Notwithstanding her cavalry manoeuvres,
she did not meet the stranger so soon as the eager search she pursued
might have allowed her to hope. She went several times to the "Bal de
Sceaux" without seeing the young Englishman who had dropped from the
skies to pervade and beautify her dreams. Though nothing spurs on a
young girl's infant passion so effectually as an obstacle, there was a
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