| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: redeemed by works of repentance. The mighty hand of God weighs both
the evil done and the value of benefits accomplished. Be yourself like
those monasteries; work here the same miracles. Your prayers must be
labors. From your labors must come the good of those above whom you
are placed by fortune, by superiority of mind; even this natural
position of your dwelling is the image of your social situation."
As he said the last words, the priest and Madame Graslin turned to
walk back toward the plains, and the rector pointed both to the
village at the foot of the hill, and to the chateau commanding the
whole landscape. It was then half-past four o'clock; a glow of yellow
sunlight enveloped the balustrade and the gardens, illuminated the
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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 Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: man who had brought us together - of his talent, his character, his
personal charm, his certain career, his dreadful doom, and even of
his clear purpose in that great study which was to have been a
supreme literary portrait, a kind of critical Vandyke or Velasquez.
She had conveyed to me in abundance that she was tongue-tied by her
perversity, by her piety, that she would never break the silence it
had not been given to the "right person," as she said, to break.
The hour however finally arrived. One evening when I had been
sitting with her longer than usual I laid my hand firmly on her
arm. "Now at last what IS it?"
She had been expecting me and was ready. She gave a long slow
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