| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: key all day by an ugly old woman with a horn on her forehead?"
Poor Rose turned so scarlet that Lady Grenville knew her secret on
the spot, and would have tried to turn the conversation: but before
she could speak, some burgher's wife blundered out a commonplace
about the jealousy of Spanish husbands; and another, to make
matters better, giggled out something more true than delicate about
West Indian masters and fair slaves.
"Ladies," said Don Guzman, reddening, "believe me that these are
but the calumnies of ignorance. If we be more jealous than other
nations, it is because we love more passionately. If some of us
abroad are profligate, it is because they, poor men, have no
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: artist received them with smiles. The rascal had shaved and put on
clean linen; he had also arranged his hair in a pleasing manner, and
chosen a very becoming pair of trousers and red leather slippers with
pointed toes. The family replied with smiles as flattering as those of
the artist. Virginie became the color of her hair, lowered her eyes,
and turned aside her head to look at the sketches. Pierre Grassou
thought these little affectations charming, Virginie had such grace;
happily she didn't look like her father or her mother; but whom did
she look like?
During this sitting there were little skirmishes between the family
and the painter, who had the audacity to call pere Vervelle witty.
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