| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: communication which she feared to make.
"Well enough to break a lance on the bold crest of that champion
who shall refuse to acknowledge thee the fairest dame in
Christendom."
"Thou wilt not then refuse me one boon--only one--only a poor
life?"
"Ha!--proceed," said King Richard, bending his brows.
"This unhappy Scottish knight--" murmured the Queen.
"Speak not of him, madam," exclaimed Richard sternly; "he dies
--his doom is fixed."
"Nay, my royal liege and love, 'tis but a silken banner
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: bound southward should be here to-morrow."
"I will attend to it," said the priest, not moving. And Felipe stole
away.
At Felipe's words the voices had stopped, as a clock finishes striking.
Silence, strained like expectation, filled the Padre's soul. But in place
of the voices came old sights of home again, the waving trees at Aranhal;
then it would be Rachel for a moment, declaiming tragedy while a houseful
of faces that he knew by name watched her; and through all the panorama
rang the pleasant laugh of Gaston. For a while in the evening the Padre
sat at his Erard playing Trovatore. Later, in his sleepless bed he lay,
saying now and then: "To die at home! Surely I may be granted at least
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