| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: them from a window. "I once revenged myself on a woman who was worth a
dozen of that one and had stirred my bile a good deal less. If this
girl comes in the way of my hatchet I'll pay her for the lash of that
whip."
"The other was a strumpet," said Peyrade; "this one has rank."
"What difference is that to me? All's fish that swims in the sea,"
replied Corentin, signing to the gendarme who drove him to whip up.
Ten minutes later the chateau de Cinq-Cygne was completely evacuated.
"How did they get rid of the corporal?" said Laurence to Francois
Michu, whom she had ordered to sit down and eat some breakfast.
"My father told me it was a matter of life and death and I mustn't let
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: encouragement and praise; but if you kill a dog, the sacred rights
of property and the domestic affections come clamouring round you
for redress. At the end of a fagging day, the sharp cruel note of
a dog's bark is in itself a keen annoyance; and to a tramp like
myself, he represents the sedentary and respectable world in its
most hostile form. There is something of the clergyman or the
lawyer about this engaging animal; and if he were not amenable to
stones, the boldest man would shrink from travelling afoot. I
respect dogs much in the domestic circle; but on the highway, or
sleeping afield, I both detest and fear them.
I was wakened next morning (Wednesday, October 2nd) by the same dog
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