| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: that divine flame whereby more than a thousand have kindled;
I speak of the "Aeneid," mother to me and nurse to me in poetry.'
Although I admired scholarship so much in Cleric, I was not
deceived about myself; I knew that I should never be a scholar.
I could never lose myself for long among impersonal things.
Mental excitement was apt to send me with a rush back
to my own naked land and the figures scattered upon it.
While I was in the very act of yearning toward the new forms
that Cleric brought up before me, my mind plunged away from me,
and I suddenly found myself thinking of the places and people
of my own infinitesimal past. They stood out strengthened and
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: I thought I might as well go down to the village at once, and
look up Poirot; but I met him half-way, coming up to the house,
and at once gave him Dorcas's message.
"Ah, the brave Dorcas! We will look at the chest, although-- but
no matter--we will examine it all the same."
We entered the house by one of the windows. There was no one in
the hall, and we went straight up to the attic.
Sure enough, there was the chest, a fine old piece, all studded
with brass nails, and full to overflowing with every imaginable
type of garment.
Poirot bundled everything out on the floor with scant ceremony.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
