| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: could do it? In a week you say? H'm, I daresay
you could--but do you think I could hold out a
week in this dead-alive place? Not me! I want
either hard work, or an all-fired racket, or more
space than there is in the whole of England. I
have been in this place, though, once before, and for
more than a week. The old man was advertising
for me then, and a chum I had with me had a no-
tion of getting a couple quid out of him by writ-
ing a lot of silly nonsense in a letter. That lark did
not come off, though. We had to clear out--and
To-morrow |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: young fellow has got away in spite of us, and with a picked crew
too. He will be giving us trouble presently; may Jove take him
before he is full grown. Find me a ship, therefore, with a crew
of twenty men, and I will lie in wait for him in the straits
between Ithaca and Samos; he will then rue the day that he set
out to try and get news of his father."
Thus did he speak, and the others applauded his saying; they
then all of them went inside the buildings.
It was not long ere Penelope came to know what the suitors were
plotting; for a man servant, Medon, overheard them from outside
the outer court as they were laying their schemes within, and
The Odyssey |
