| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: have those titles now in my successor's office; I, who have known you
since you were so high"; and the old man stopped to put his hand near
the ground. "Ah! a man must have been a notary for forty-one years and
a half to know the sort of grief I feel to see my name exposed before
the face of Israel in those announcements of the seizure and sale of
the property. When I pass through the streets and see men reading
these horrible yellow posters, I am ashamed, as if my own honor and
ruin were concerned. Some fools will stand there and read them aloud
expressly to draw other fools about them--and what imbecile remarks
they make! As if a man were not master of his own property! Your
father ran through two fortunes before he made the one he left you;
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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 Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: have any appetite unless I have a buttonhole first.
CECILY. A Marechal Niel? [Picks up scissors.]
ALGERNON. No, I'd sooner have a pink rose.
CECILY. Why? [Cuts a flower.]
ALGERNON. Because you are like a pink rose, Cousin Cecily.
CECILY. I don't think it can be right for you to talk to me like
that. Miss Prism never says such things to me.
ALGERNON. Then Miss Prism is a short-sighted old lady. [CECILY
puts the rose in his buttonhole.] You are the prettiest girl I
ever saw.
CECILY. Miss Prism says that all good looks are a snare.
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