| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: my mind gets older, and stronger, and better seasoned, and more
satisfactory."
Says I, "If a man comes here at ninety, don't he ever set himself
back?"
"Of course he does. He sets himself back to fourteen; tries it a
couple of hours, and feels like a fool; sets himself forward to
twenty; it ain't much improvement; tries thirty, fifty, eighty, and
finally ninety - finds he is more at home and comfortable at the
same old figure he is used to than any other way. Or, if his mind
begun to fail him on earth at eighty, that's where he finally
sticks up here. He sticks at the place where his mind was last at
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: long before I could either see or hear it, and then when the
thing appeared, he would run snapping at its heels, drawing the
charge away from me until I found safety in some tree; yet
never did the wily Nobs take an unnecessary chance of a mauling.
He would dart in and away so quickly that not even the
lightning-like movements of the great cats could reach him.
I have seen him tantalize them thus until they fairly screamed
in rage.
The greatest inconvenience the hunters caused me was the delay,
for they have a nasty habit of keeping one treed for an hour or
more if balked in their designs; but at last we came in sight
The People That Time Forgot |
