| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: first and last home they had ever had.
"Seventy-nine is when it was," continued Frank. "So you can save the
trouble of travelling away down to Swampscott."
"I guess I'll go to the graveyard, anyway," said the cow-puncher in his
offish voice, and looking fixedly in front of him.
They came into Washington Street, and again the elder McLean uneasily
surveyed the younger's appearance.
But the momentary chill had melted from the heart of the genial Lin.
"After to-morrow," said he, laying a hand on his brother's shoulder, "yu'
can start any lead yu' please, and I guess I can stay with yu' pretty
close, Frank."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished,
and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that
no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to.
They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it--
he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones
Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been able to understand--
so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder.
The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong,
but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm,"
had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words "and the Man at the
Helm shall speak to no one." So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering
 The Hunting of the Snark |