| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: whose character, whose habits, and whose temper were known to me, and
all seemed worthy of you. My child, my task is done. From this day
forth you are the arbiter of your fate, and I consider myself both
happy and unhappy at finding myself relieved of the heaviest of
paternal functions. I know not whether you will for any long time,
now, hear a voice which, to you, has never been stern; but remember
that conjugal happiness does not rest so much on brilliant qualities
and ample fortune as on reciprocal esteem. This happiness is, in its
nature, modest, and devoid of show. So now, my dear, my consent is
given beforehand, whoever the son-in-law may be whom you introduce to
me; but if you should be unhappy, remember you will have no right to
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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 Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: picked up and inspected several large semi-cylinders
of the thin white bark of a sycamore, and finally chose
two which seemed to suit him. Then he knelt by the
fire and painfully wrote something upon each of these
with his "red keel"; one he rolled up and put in his
jacket pocket, and the other he put in Joe's hat and
removed it to a little distance from the owner. And
he also put into the hat certain schoolboy treasures of
almost inestimable value -- among them a lump of
chalk, an India-rubber ball, three fishhooks, and one of
that kind of marbles known as a "sure 'nough crystal."
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
