| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: 'Lo! all these trophies of affections hot,
Of pensiv'd and subdued desires the tender,
Nature hath charg'd me that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render,
That is, to you, my origin and ender:
For these, of force, must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.
'O then advance of yours that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
Take all these similes to your own command,
Hallow'd with sighs that burning lungs did raise;
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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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: the same reason I wouldn't think of trying to smash the door.
There would have been a rush to stop me at the noise,
and I did not mean to get into a confounded scrimmage.
Somebody else might have got killed--for I would not have
broken out only to get chucked back, and I did not want any
more of that work. He refused, looking more sick than ever.
He was afraid of the men, and also of that old second mate of his
who had been sailing with him for years--a gray-headed old humbug;
and his steward, too, had been with him devil knows how long--
seventeen years or more--a dogmatic sort of loafer who hated
me like poison, just because I was the chief mate. No chief
The Secret Sharer |
