| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: me with 50 pounds in the bank, owing no man nothing, 100 pounds
more due to me in a week or so, and 150 pounds more in the course
of the month; and I can look back on a total receipt of 465 pounds,
0s. 6d. for the last twelve months!
And yet I am not happy!
Yet I beg! Here is my beggary:-
1. Sellar's Trial.
2. George Borrow's Book about Wales.
3. My Grandfather's Trip to Holland.
4. And (but this is, I fear, impossible) the Bell Rock Book.
When I think of how last year began, after four months of sickness
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: the slopes of the gables and the colour of the tiles, and even the
demeanour and voices of the gossips round about me.
Wandering in this aimless humour, I turned up a lane and found myself
following the course of the bright little river. I passed first one
and then another, then a third, several couples out love-making in
the spring evening; and a consequent feeling of loneliness was
beginning to grow upon me, when I came to a dam across the river, and
a mill - a great, gaunt promontory of building, - half on dry ground
and half arched over the stream. The road here drew in its shoulders
and crept through between the landward extremity of the mill and a
little garden enclosure, with a small house and a large signboard
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