| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: one of those pleasing surprises which often happen to active
resolution. Many things difficult to design prove easy to
performance."
CHAPTER XIV - RASSELAS AND IMLAC RECEIVE AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.
THEY had now wrought their way to the middle, and solaced their
toil with the approach of liberty, when the Prince, coming down to
refresh himself with air, found his sister Nekayah standing at the
mouth of the cavity. He started, and stood confused, afraid to
tell his design, and yet hopeless to conceal it. A few moments
determined him to repose on her fidelity, and secure her secrecy by
a declaration without reserve.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: answered by Lafayette's best of all possible republics against the
republican insurrection at Saint-Merri and the rue Transnonnain. All
power, legitimate or illegitimate, must defend itself when attacked;
but the strange thing is that where the people are held heroic in
their victory over the nobility, power is called murderous in its duel
with the people. If it succumbs after its appeal to force, power is
then called imbecile. The present government is attempting to save
itself by two laws from the same evil Charles X. tried to escape by
two ordinances; is it not a bitter derision? Is craft permissible in
the hands of power against craft? may it kill those who seek to kill
it? The massacres of the Revolution have replied to the massacres of
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