| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Domestic Peace by Honore de Balzac: seeking information about the unknown lady. After exhausting the good-
humor even of the most indifferent, he had resolved to take advantage
of a moment when the Comtesse de Gondreville seemed to be at liberty,
to ask her the name of the mysterious lady, when he perceived a little
space left clear between the pedestal of the candelabrum and the two
sofas, which ended in that corner. The dance had left several of the
chairs vacant, which formed rows of fortifications held by mothers or
women of middle age; and the Colonel seized the opportunity to make
his way through this palisade hung with shawls and wraps. He began by
making himself agreeable to the dowagers, and so from one to another,
and from compliment to compliment, he at last reached the empty space
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: and the other was groaning on the grass. One of the riders
was getting out of the water covered with mud, the other lay quite still.
"His neck is broke," said my mother.
"And serve him right, too," said one of the colts.
I thought the same, but my mother did not join with us.
"Well, no," she said, "you must not say that; but though I am an old horse,
and have seen and heard a great deal, I never yet could make out
why men are so fond of this sport; they often hurt themselves,
often spoil good horses, and tear up the fields, and all for a hare or a fox,
or a stag, that they could get more easily some other way;
but we are only horses, and don't know."
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