| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: seek for consistency or expect clear and stable views in a
medium so perturbed and fleeting. This is no cabinet science,
in which things are tested to a scruple; we theorise with a
pistol to our head; we are confronted with a new set of
conditions on which we have not only to pass a judgment, but
to take action, before the hour is at an end. And we cannot
even regard ourselves as a constant; in this flux of things,
our identity itself seems in a perpetual variation; and not
infrequently we find our own disguise the strangest in the
masquerade. In the course of time, we grow to love things we
hated and hate things we loved. Milton is not so dull as he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: and interests which usually absorb her sex.
"You are very silent to-day, mesdemoiselles," she said, after
advancing a little way among her companions. "Good-morning, my little
Laure," she added, in a soft, caressing voice, approaching the young
girl who was painting apart from the rest. "That head is strong,--the
flesh tints a little too rosy, but the drawing is excellent."
Laure raised her head and looked tenderly at Ginevra; their faces
beamed with the expression of a mutual affection. A faint smile
brightened the lips of the young Italian, who seemed thoughtful, and
walked slowly to her easel, glancing carelessly at the drawings and
paintings on her way, and bidding good-morning to each of the young
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