| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: engineers than it can declare war merely to win battles and bring
to the front great generals; but, then, as men of genius have
never failed to present themselves when the occasion called for
them, springing from the crowd like Vauban, can there be any
greater proof of the uselessness of the present institution? Can't
they see that when they have stimulated a man of talent by all
those preparations he will make a fierce struggle before he allows
himself to become a nonentity? Is this good policy on the part of
the State? On the contrary, is not the State lighting the fire of
ardent ambitions, which must find fuel somewhere.
Among the six hundred young men whom they put forth every year
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: I shall be glad to make any terms with you that you see fit to name
for the information she must have had from George Corvick - the
information you know, that had come to him, poor chap, in one of
the happiest hours of his life, straight from Hugh Vereker."
He looked at me like a dim phrenological bust. "The information -
?"
"Vereker's secret, my dear man - the general intention of his
books: the string the pearls were strung on, the buried treasure,
the figure in the carpet."
He began to flush - the numbers on his bumps to come out.
"Vereker's books had a general intention?"
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