| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: always complaining of his digestion. His principal vice was a mania
for proposing rural parties during the summer season, excursions to
Montmorency, picnics on the grass, and visits to creameries on the
boulevard du Mont-Parnasse. For the last six months Dutocq had taken
to visiting Mademoiselle Godard from time to time, with certain views
of his own, hoping to discover in her establishment some female
treasure.
Thus Baudoyer had a pair of henchmen in Dutocq and Godard. Monsieur
Saillard, too innocent to judge rightly of Dutocq, was in the habit of
paying him frequent little visits at the office. Young La Billardiere,
the director's son, placed as supernumerary with Baudoyer, made
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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 Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: Mississippi River another field of warfare developed itself, on
which some of the hardest battles were fought, and the greatest
victories won. Beyond the Mississippi again stretched another
great field, bounded only by the Rocky Mountains and the Rio
Grande. But the principal fighting in this field was near or even
on the Mississippi, in the efforts made by both Unionists and
Confederates to keep and hold the great highway of the river, so
necessary for trade in time of peace, and for moving armies in
time of war.
On this immense battle-ground was fought one of the most costly
wars of modern times, with soldiers numbering a million men on
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