The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: six hundred and eighty for costs."
"Are you acting for Cerizet?" asked the barrister.
"Cerizet has put all the papers into the hands of Louchard, and you
know what you have to expect if arrested. Is Cerizet wrong in thinking
you have twenty-five thousand francs in your desk? He says you offered
them to him and he thinks it only natural not to leave them in your
hands."
"Thank you for taking the step, my good friend," replied Theodose. "I
have been expecting this attack."
"Between ourselves," replied Desroches, "you have made an utter fool
of him, and he is furious. The scamp will stop at nothing to get his
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: rather, I should say, of the hierarchical order of the rational
progress of ideas in life, he is not far removed from what the
laborious investigations of modern travellers have given us.
And, indeed, as regards the working of the speculative faculty in
the creation of history, it is in all respects marvellous how that
the most truthful accounts of the passage from barbarism to
civilisation in ancient literature come from the works of poets.
The elaborate researches of Mr. Tylor and Sir John Lubbock have
done little more than verify the theories put forward in the
PROMETHEUS BOUND and the DE NATURA RERUM; yet neither AEschylus nor
Lucretias followed in the modern path, but rather attained to truth
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