| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: the clutches of the Spaniards than, gathering together another
band of adventurers, he fell upon the very same vessel in the
gloom of the night, recaptured her when she rode at anchor in the
harbor of Campeche under the guns of the fort, slipped the cable,
and was away without the loss of a single man. He lost her in a
hurricane soon afterward, just off the Isle of Pines; but the
deed was none the less daring for all that.
Another notable no less famous than these two worthies was Roch
Braziliano, the truculent Dutchman who came up from the coast of
Brazil to the Spanish Main with a name ready-made for him. Upon
the very first adventure which he undertook he captured a plate
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: will convince others the more, as he appears convinced himself.
How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice, when
they will not so much as take warning?
I forget whether Advice be among the lost things which Aristo says
are to be found in the moon; that and Time ought to have been
there.
No preacher is listened to but Time, which gives us the same train
and turn of thought that older people have tried in vain to put
into our heads before.
When we desire or solicit anything, our minds run wholly on the
good side or circumstances of it; when it is obtained, our minds
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