| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: enthusiasm, was more or less a devotee himself. There is something
highly absurd in the exposition of such toys to the outrages of
winter on a housetop. They would be more in keeping in a glass
case before a Nurnberg clock. Above all, at night, when the
children are abed, and even grown people are snoring under quilts,
does it not seem impertinent to leave these ginger-bread figures
winking and tinkling to the stars and the rolling moon? The
gargoyles may fitly enough twist their ape-like heads; fitly enough
may the potentate bestride his charger, like a centurion in an old
German print of the VIA DOLOROSA; but the toys should be put away
in a box among some cotton, until the sun rises, and the children
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: 'But was this the trip she sunk, or was----'
'Oh, no!--months afterward. And so the old man, he----'
'Then she made TWO last trips, because you said----'
He stepped back from the wheel, swabbing away his perspiration,
and said--
'Here!' (calling me by name), 'YOU take her and lie a while--
you're handier at it than I am. Trying to play yourself for a stranger
and an innocent!--why, I knew you before you had spoken seven words;
and I made up my mind to find out what was your little game.
It was to DRAW ME OUT. Well, I let you, didn't I?
Now take the wheel and finish the watch; and next time play fair,
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