| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: My action might have made me appear eccentric. Goodness only knew
how that absurdly whiskered mate would "account" for my conduct,
and what the whole ship thought of that informality of their new captain.
I was vexed with myself.
Not from compunction certainly, but, as it were mechanically,
I proceeded to get the ladder in myself. Now a side ladder
of that sort is a light affair and comes in easily, yet my
vigorous tug, which should have brought it flying on board,
merely recoiled upon my body in a totally unexpected jerk.
What the devil! . . . I was so astounded by the immovableness
of that ladder that I remained stockstill, trying to
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: money. Two only contented themselves with pushing with their
feet combatants who came under their table. Two others,
rather than take part in this disturbance, buried their
hands in their pockets; and another two jumped upon the
table they occupied, as people do to avoid being submerged
by overflowing water.
"Come, come," said D'Artagnan to himself, not having lost
one of the details we have related, "this is a very fair
gathering -- circumspect, calm, accustomed to disturbance,
acquainted with blows! Peste! I have been lucky."
All at once his attention was called to a particular part of
Ten Years Later |
