| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: to common credulities. You are not yourself, not at all, and some
day you will admit to me that . . . No, the best thing will be to
forget it, as you will soon see yourself. We shall never mention
that subject in the future. I am certain you will be only too
glad to agree with me on that point."
"How far ahead are you looking?" asked Mrs. Travers, finding her
voice and even the very tone in which she would have addressed
him had they been about to part in the hall of their town house.
She might have been asking him at what time he expected to be
home, while a footman held the door open and the brougham waited
in the street.
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: offices. If Madame Descoings had paid her stake and held her ticket,
she would have gone by half-past nine o'clock to learn her fate at a
building close to the ministry of Finance, in the rue Neuve-des-Petits
Champs, a situation now occupied by the Theatre Ventadour in the place
of the same name. On the days when the drawings took place, an
observer might watch with curiosity the crowd of old women, cooks, and
old men assembled about the door of this building; a sight as
remarkable as the cue of people about the Treasury on the days when
the dividends are paid.
"Well, here you are, rolling in wealth!" said old Desroches, coming
into the room just as the Descoings was swallowing her last drop of
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