| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: slight outbreak. however, imperceptible to the old watchmaker, he
allowed himself. Raising the instrument with which he was about
to begin his work, he let it fall upon the little system of
machinery that had, anew, cost him months of thought and toil. It
was shattered by the stroke!
Owen Warland's story would have been no tolerable representation
of the troubled life of those who strive to create the beautiful,
if, amid all other thwarting influences, love had not interposed
to steal the cunning from his hand. Outwardly he had been no
ardent or enterprising lover; the career of his passion had
confined its tumults and vicissitudes so entirely within the
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: struck in the face, and when the name of Mrs. Skelmersdale came into
his head, he glanced at his wife by his side as if it were something
that she might well have heard. Was this indeed the same thing as
that? Wonderful, fresh as the day of Creation, clean as flame, yet
the same! Was Amanda indeed the sister of Mrs. Skelmersdale--
wrought of clean fire, but her sister? . . .
But also beside the inimical aspects which could set such doubts
afoot there were in her infinite variety yet other Amandas neither
very dear nor very annoying, but for the most part delightful, who
entertained him as strangers might, Amandas with an odd twist which
made them amusing to watch, jolly Amandas who were simply
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