| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: faces, and the face it had turned to him on the occasion of his
last attempt to cultivate that friendship was the one he could look
at least. This was the privation he inflicted; the other was the
privation he bore. The conditions she never phrased he used to
murmur to himself in solitude: "One more, one more - only just
one." Certainly he was going down; he often felt it when he caught
himself, over his work, staring at vacancy and giving voice to that
inanity. There was proof enough besides in his being so weak and
so ill. His irritation took the form of melancholy, and his
melancholy that of the conviction that his health had quite failed.
His altar moreover had ceased to exist; his chapel, in his dreams,
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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 Sportsman by Xenophon: better not approach too near, for fear the creature should move off.
Let him make a circuit round; the chances are that she is there; and
that will soon be clear; for if so, the tracks will not trend outwards
from the place at any point.[10]
[10] L. Dind. emend. {oudamoi}, "the tracks will not pass in any
direction outwards from such ground."
And now when it is clear that puss is there, there let her bide; she
will not sir; let him set off and seek another, before the tracks are
indistinct; being careful only to note the time of day; so that, in
case he discovers others, there will be daylight enough for him to set
up the nets.[11] When the final moment has come, he will stretch the
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