| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: by some one who had tried to make the most of cast-off material.
There was something pitiful and shamefaced about the hut.
It shrank and drooped and faded in its barren field, and seemed
to
cling only by sufferance to the edge of the splendid city.
"This," said the Keeper of the Gate, standing still and speaking
with
a low, distinct voice--"this is your mansion, John Weightman."
An almost intolerable shock of grieved wonder and indignation
choked the man for a moment so that he could not say a word.
Then he turned his face away from the poor little hut
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: an electric one of seventy-five horse power, and a gasoline one of
two hundred and fifty horse power, it was also provided with wheels a
yard in diameter, which enabled it to roll over the roads, as well as
swim the seas.
"But even then, granting that the turmoil of Lake Kirdall might be
produced by a submarine, brought to a high degree of perfection,
there remains as before the question how could it have reached Lake
Kirdall? The lake, shut in on all sides by a circle of mountains, is
no more accessible to a submarine than to a sea-monster.
"In whatever way this last puzzling question may be solved, the
nature of this strange appearance can no longer be disputed since the
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