| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: address of Madame de Dey's house was written. The young man read it
with an air of curiosity.
"He knows he hasn't far to go," thought the mayor as the recruit left
the house. "That's a bold fellow! God guide him! He seemed to have his
answers ready. But he'd have been lost if any one but I had questioned
him and demanded to see his papers."
At that instant, the clocks of Carentan struck half-past nine; the
lanterns were lighted in Madame de Dey's antechamber; the servants
were helping their masters and mistresses to put on their clogs, their
cloaks, and their mantles; the card-players had paid their debts, and
all the guests were preparing to leave together after the established
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: well. Whereas I now see that the intention was to attribute to Love every
species of greatness and glory, whether really belonging to him or not,
without regard to truth or falsehood--that was no matter; for the original
proposal seems to have been not that each of you should really praise Love,
but only that you should appear to praise him. And so you attribute to
Love every imaginable form of praise which can be gathered anywhere; and
you say that 'he is all this,' and 'the cause of all that,' making him
appear the fairest and best of all to those who know him not, for you
cannot impose upon those who know him. And a noble and solemn hymn of
praise have you rehearsed. But as I misunderstood the nature of the praise
when I said that I would take my turn, I must beg to be absolved from the
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