The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: "Where did you hang up that coat?"
"In the bath-room, sir." The usual anxious tone. "It's not quite
dry yet, sir."
For some time longer I sat in the cuddy. Had my double vanished as
he had come? But of his coming there was an explanation, whereas
his disappearance would be inexplicable. . . . I went slowly into
my dark room, shut the door, lighted the lamp, and for a time dared
not turn round. When at last I did I saw him standing bolt-upright
in the narrow recessed part. It would not be true to say I had a
shock, but an irresistible doubt of his bodily existence flitted
through my mind. Can it be, I asked myself, that he is not visible
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: what is this which is quite in my way?'
'I was coming to that,' said Mr. Thomson: 'Fate has put it in
my power to honour your arrival with something really
original by way of dessert. A mystery.'
'A mystery?' I repeated.
'Yes,' said his friend, 'a mystery. It may prove to be
nothing, and it may prove to be a great deal. But in the
meanwhile it is truly mysterious, no eye having looked on it
for near a hundred years; it is highly genteel, for it treats
of a titled family; and it ought to be melodramatic, for
(according to the superscription) it is concerned with
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