| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: nobody would give him away, being afraid of the
consequences. Whenever suspicion fell on him,
he managed to clear his character. Once during
the night he stole horses from the pasture ground
in the village Kolotovka. He generally preferred
to steal horses from landowners or tradespeople.
But this was a harder job, and when he had no
chance of success he did not mind robbing peasants
too. In Kolotovka he drove off the horses with-
out making sure whose they were. He did not
go himself to the spot, but sent a young and clever
The Forged Coupon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: and a burden to his neighbours. He has a right to water, to air,
to light. In demanding that, he demands no more than nature has
given to the wild beast of the forest. He is better than they.
Treat him, then, as well as God has treated them. If we require
of him to be a man, we must at least put him on a level with the
brutes.
We have then, first of all, to face the existence of a dangerous
class of this kind, into which the weaker as well as the worst
members of society have a continual tendency to sink. A class
which, not respecting itself, does not respect others; which has
nothing to lose and all to gain by anarchy; in which the lowest
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