| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: said:
"Where in the world has she sprung from?"
To which my father replied:
"What fools we are! She springs from the Carmelites."
"My child, Mme. de Stael is dead," said my mother gently.
When I finished /Adolphe/, I asked Miss Griffith how a woman could be
betrayed.
"Why, of course, when she loves," was her reply.
Renee, tell me, do you think we could be betrayed by a man?
Miss Griffith has at last discerned that I am not an utter ignoramus,
that I have somewhere a hidden vein of knowledge, the knowledge we
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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 Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: forward. Some of the men wore black masks. Holderness rode at the
front, his red-gold beard shining in the sunlight. The steady clip-crop
of hoofs and clinking of iron stirrups broke the morning quiet.
Holderness, with two of his men, dismounted before the Bishop's gate; the
others of the band trotted on down the road. The ring of Holderness's
laugh preceded the snap of the gate-latch
Hare stood calm and cold behind his green covert watching the three men
stroll up the garden path. Holderness took a cigarette from his lips as
he neared the porch and blew out circles of white smoke. Bishop Caldwell
tottered from the cottage rapping the porch-floor with his cane.
"Good-morning, Bishop," greeted Holderness, blandly, baring his head.
 The Heritage of the Desert |