| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Would thou wert as I am, and I a man,
My heart all whole as thine, thy heart my wound;
For one sweet look thy help I would assure thee,
Though nothing but my body's bane would cure thee.'
'Give me my hand,' saith he, 'why dost thou feel it?'
'Give me my heart,' saith she, 'and thou shalt have it;
O! give it me, lest thy hard heart do steel it,
And being steel'd, soft sighs can never grave it: 376
Then love's deep groans I never shall regard,
Because Adonis' heart hath made mine hard.'
'For shame,' he cries, 'let go, and let me go;
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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 Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: 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;
and you wouldn't be a Manerville if you didn't do likewise. Besides,
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