| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: was disqualified by his acquired nature as a Don Juan; and
he, who had been so much at his ease with country lasses,
treated the town dames to an extreme of deference. One lady,
who met him at a ball, gave Chambers a speaking sketch of his
demeanour. "His manner was not prepossessing - scarcely, she
thinks, manly or natural. It seemed as if he affected a
rusticity or LANDERTNESS, so that when he said the music was
`bonnie, bonnie,' it was like the expression of a child."
These would be company manners; and doubtless on a slight
degree of intimacy the affectation would grow less. And his
talk to women had always "a turn either to the pathetic or
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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 Rescue by Joseph Conrad: emotions and all that fatigue.
Mrs. Travers directed the glass instinctively toward the entrance
of the lagoon. The smooth water there shone like a piece of
silver in the dark frame of the forest. A black speck swept
across the field of her vision. It was some time before she could
find it again and then she saw, apparently so near as to be
within reach of the voice, a small canoe with two people in it.
She saw the wet paddles rising and dipping with a flash in the
sunlight. She made out plainly the face of Immada, who seemed to
be looking straight into the big end of the telescope. The chief
and his sister, after resting under the bank for a couple of
The Rescue |
