| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: some champagne; but not a bottle was there left, for the officers had
drunk every one! Why, I myself got through seventeen bottles at a sitting."
[1] A liquor distilled from fermented bread crusts or sour fruit.
"Come, come! You CAN'T have got through seventeen," remarked the
flaxen-haired man.
"But I did, I give my word of honour," retorted Nozdrev.
"Imagine what you like, but you didn't drink even TEN bottles at a sitting."
"Will you bet that I did not?"
"No; for what would be the use of betting about it?"
"Then at least wager the gun which you have bought."
"No, I am not going to do anything of the kind."
Dead Souls |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: flit strange, fantastic shapes peopling the already
hideously peopled forests with menacing figures, as though
the lion and the leopard, the snake and the hyena,
and the countless poisonous insects were not quite
sufficient to strike terror to the hearts of the poor,
simple creatures whose lot is cast in earth's most fearsome spot.
And so it was that little Tibo cringed not only from
real menaces but from imaginary ones. He was afraid
even to venture upon a road that might lead to escape,
lest Bukawai had set to watch it some frightful demon
of the jungle.
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
