The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: you no care to contemplate and study these?
Will you not then perceive either who you are or unto what
end you were born: or for what purpose the power of contemplation
has been bestowed on you?
"Well, but in life there are some things disagreeable and
hard to bear."
And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched by the
heat? Are you not cramped for room? Have you not to bathe with
discomfort? Are you not drenched when it rains? Have you not to
endure the clamor and shouting and such annoyances as these?
Well, I suppose you set all this over against the splendour of
 The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: "Well, this is frankness. So you would not follow me?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Eh! why, how can I leave the lover who writes me such sweet little
notes?" she asked, pointing to the blackened scrap of paper with a
mocking smile.
"Is there any truth in it?" asked Castanier. "Have you really a
lover?"
"Really!" cried Aquilina; "and have you never given it a serious
thought, dear? To begin with, you are fifty years old. Then you have
just the sort of face to put on a fruit stall; if the woman tried to
|