| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: shall not the heart be glad?" he laughed. "It is good; it is all
good. As for the grub--" He doubled up his arm and caressed the
swelling biceps. "And if we have lived and worked like beasts,
have we not been paid like kings? Twenty dollars to the pan the
streak is running, and we know it to be eight feet thick. It is
another Klondike--and we know it--Jim Hawes there, by your elbow,
knows it and complains not. And there's Hitchcock! He sews
moccasins like an old woman, and waits against the time. Only you
can't wait and work until the wash-up in the spring. Then we
shall all be rich, rich as kings, only you cannot wait. You want
to go back to the States. So do I, and I was born there, but I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: conduct gave some color to the idle talk about him. He asked Mme.
Vauquer to give him a room on the second floor, and to make a
corresponding reduction in her charges. Apparently, such strict
economy was called for, that he did without a fire all through
the winter. Mme. Vauquer asked to be paid in advance, an
arrangement to which M. Goriot consented, and thenceforward she
spoke of him as "Father Goriot."
What had brought about this decline and fall? Conjecture was
keen, but investigation was difficult. Father Goriot was not
communicative; in the sham countess' phrase he was "a
curmudgeon." Empty-headed people who babble about their own
 Father Goriot |