| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: served just now merely as a setting for an irresistible smile.
The owner of the flaming head looked round in surprise on the
pair of Romanies and began an immediate apology to which a sudden
blush served as accompaniment.
"Beg pardon. I didn't know The damned dago told me " He stopped
in confusion, with a scrape and a bow to the lady.
"Sir, I demand an explanation of this most unwarrantable
intrusion," spoke the ranger haughtily, in his best Spanish.
A patter of soft foreign vowels flowed from the stranger's
embarrassment.
"You durned old hawss-stealing greaser, cayn't you talk English?"
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: indignantly to my other writings as a proof that I am incapable of
such a deed: I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral purpose
of this poem itself, to the arithmetical principles so cautiously
inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural History--I will
take the more prosaic course of simply explaining how it happened.
The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances,
used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished,
and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that
no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to.
They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it--
he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones
The Hunting of the Snark |
