| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: high the peak we had ascended, another could be seen still higher,
and that, too, must be scaled.
The infinite variety of the trail, its surprises, its new
dangers, its apparent vanishings into thin air, only to be found,
after an all but impossible curve, up the side of another cliff,
coaxed us on and on; and when or where we would have been able to
say, "thus far and no farther" is an undecided problem to this day.
About three o'clock one afternoon we camped in a small
clearing at the end of a narrow valley. Our arriero,
halting us at that early hour, had explained that there was no
other camping ground within six hours' march, and no
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Through which I may convey this troubled soul.
'Yet die I will not till my Collatine
Have heard the cause of my untimely death;
That he may vow, in that sad hour of mine,
Revenge on him that made me stop my breath.
My stained blood to Tarquin I'll bequeath,
Which by him tainted shall for him be spent,
And as his due writ in my testament.
'My honour I'll bequeath unto the knife
That wounds my body so dishonoured.
'Tis honour to deprive dishonour'd life;
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