| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: faded away, blue into blue sky. But between him and those moors,
and really at his very feet, lay something, to which, as soon as
Tom saw it, he determined to go, for that was the place for him.
A deep, deep green and rocky valley, very narrow, and filled with
wood; but through the wood, hundreds of feet below him, he could
see a clear stream glance. Oh, if he could but get down to that
stream! Then, by the stream, he saw the roof of a little cottage,
and a little garden set out in squares and beds. And there was a
tiny little red thing moving in the garden, no bigger than a fly.
As Tom looked down, he saw that it was a woman in a red petticoat.
Ah! perhaps she would give him something to eat. And there were
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: straight course for consistency's sake, and accept him,
though her fancy might not flood him with the iridescent
hues of uncritical love. But the argument now came
back as sorry gleams from a broken mirror. The dis-
covery was no less a scourge than a surprise.
He came on looking upon the ground, and did not
see Bathsheba till they were less than a stone's throw
apart. He looked up at the sound of her pit-pat, and
his changed appearance sufficiently denoted to her the
depth and strength of the feelings paralyzed by her
letter.
Far From the Madding Crowd |
