| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: in which there was a consciousness of many more things than are
usually touched upon, even tacitly, in such a relation. It
produced for Pemberton an embarrassment; it raised in a shadowy
form a question - this was the first glimpse of it - destined to
play a singular and, as he imagined, owing to the altogether
peculiar conditions, an unprecedented part in his intercourse with
his little companion. Later, when he found himself talking with
the youngster in a way in which few youngsters could ever have been
talked with, he thought of that clumsy moment on the bench at Nice
as the dawn of an understanding that had broadened. What had added
to the clumsiness then was that he thought it his duty to declare
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: head resting on his hand. Not only does every one like to talk then,
but also to listen. Digestion, which is almost always attent, is
loquacious or silent, as characters differ. Then every one finds his
opportunity.
Was not this preamble necessary to make you know the charm of the
narrative, by which a celebrated man, now dead, depicted the innocent
jesuistry of women, painting it with the subtlety peculiar to persons
who have seen much of the world, and which makes statesmen such
delightful storytellers when, like Prince Talleyrand and Prince
Metternich, they vouchsafe to tell a story?
De Marsay, prime minister for some six months, had already given
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