| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: wind again he found himself without a hat, and with hardly any
wits in his head.
There he sat upon the stool for a long time without daring to
move, for he did not know what might happen to him next. There he
sat and sat, and by-and-by his ears got cold in the night air,
and then he noticed for the first time that he had lost his head
gear, and bethought himself of the feather cap in his pocket. So
out he drew it and clapped it upon his head, and then--lo and
behold!--he found he had become as invisible as thin air--not
a shred or a hair of him could be seen. "Well!" said he, "here is
another wonder, but I am safe now at any rate." And up he got to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: francs for drink-money for you." Then, seeing that Lucien hesitated,
"Come! come!" he exclaimed, and Lucien took his place again, telling
himself that he meant to try the effect of the argumentum ad hominem.
"Father," he began, "after pouring out, with all the coolness in the
world, a series of maxims which the vulgar would consider profoundly
immoral----"
"And so they are," said the priest; "that is why Jesus Christ said
that it must needs be that offences come, my son; and that is why the
world displays such horror of offences."
"A man of your stamp will not be surprised by the question which I am
about to ask?"
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