| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: severity that he would not allow them to wait by the palisade;
but Nekhludoff's guide was not abashed by this severity.
"Hallo, lad! why so fierce? You go and rouse your boss while we
wait here?"
The sentinel gave no answer, but shouted something in at the gate
and stood looking at the broad-shouldered young labourer scraping
the mud off Nekhludoff's boots with a chip of wood by the light
of the lamp. From behind the palisade came the hum of male and
female voices. In about three minutes more something rattled, the
gate opened, and a sergeant, with his cloak thrown over his
shoulders, stepped out of the darkness into the lamplight.
Resurrection |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: and it was his great delight to call her into the "Dental
Parlors" when a patient was in the chair and, while he held
the plugger, to have her rap in the gold fillings with the
little box-wood mallet as he had taught her. But that
tempest of passion, that overpowering desire that had
suddenly taken possession of him that day when he had given
her ether, again when he had caught her in his arms in
the B Street station, and again and again during the early
days of their married life, rarely stirred him now. On the
other hand, he was never assailed with doubts as to the
wisdom of his marriage.
McTeague |
