| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: Are faint and broken may take heart and go,
And from those dark depths cool and crystalline
Drink, and draw balm, and sleep for sleepless souls, and anodyne.
But we oppress our natures, God or Fate
Is our enemy, we starve and feed
On vain repentance - O we are born too late!
What balm for us in bruised poppy seed
Who crowd into one finite pulse of time
The joy of infinite love and the fierce pain of infinite crime.
O we are wearied of this sense of guilt,
Wearied of pleasure's paramour despair,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: age, nineteen; we ride together on horseback nearly every day."
"'Aut Caesar, aut Serizy,'" said Mistigris, sententiously.
Pierrotin and Pere Leger exchanged winks on hearing this statement.
"Really," said the count to Oscar, "I am delighted to meet with a
young man who can tell me about that personage. I want his influence
on a rather serious matter, although it would cost him nothing to
oblige me. It concerns a claim I wish to press on the American
government. I should be glad to obtain information about Monsieur de
Serizy."
"Oh! if you want to succeed," replied Oscar, with a knowing look,
"don't go to him, but go to his wife; he is madly in love with her; no
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