| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: footman entered, dressed like a minister.
"Tell Captain Paz that I wish to see him."
"If you think you are going to find out anything that way--" said
Comte Adam, laughing.
It is well to mention that Adam and Clementine, married in December,
1835, had gone soon after the wedding to Italy, Switzerland, and
Germany, where they spent the greater part of two years. Returning to
Paris in November, 1837, the countess entered society for the first
time as a married woman during the winter which had just ended, and
she then became aware of the existence, half-suppressed and wholly
dumb but very useful, of a species of factotum who was personally
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: gratiam Romani velint, posse iis utiles esse amicos; vel sibi agros
attribuant vel patiantur eos tenere quos armis possederint: sese unis
Suebis concedere, quibus ne di quidem immortales pares esse possint;
reliquum quidem in terris esse neminem quem non superare possint.
Ad haec Caesar quae visum est respondit; sed exitus fuit orationis:
sibi nullam cum iis amicitiam esse posse, si in Gallia remanerent; neque
verum esse, qui suos fines tueri non potuerint alienos occupare; neque
ullos in Gallia vacare agros qui dari tantae praesertim multitudini sine
iniuria possint; sed licere, si velint, in Ubiorum finibus considere,
quorum sint legati apud se et de Sueborum iniuriis querantur et a se
auxilium petant: hoc se Ubiis imperaturus.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: the world, what should either of us do for a living? How would you
support your children?"
Mme. de Bargeton's presence of mind put an end to the jeremiads of the
noblesse. Great natures are prone to make a virtue of misfortune; and
there is something irresistibly attractive about well-doing when
persisted in through evil report; innocence has the piquancy of the
forbidden.
Mme. de Bargeton's rooms were crowded that evening with friends who
came to remonstrate with her. She brought her most caustic wit into
play. She said that as noble families could not produce a Moliere, a
Racine, a Rousseau, a Voltaire, a Massillon, a Beaumarchais, or a
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: however, not unfrequently bravely done, and was seldom discovered.
I was not so fortunate as to resemble any of my free acquaintances
sufficiently to answer the description of their papers.
But I had a friend--a sailor--who owned a sailor's protection,
which answered somewhat the purpose of free papers--describing his person,
and certifying to the fact that he was a free American sailor.
The instrument had at its head the American eagle, which gave
it the appearance at once of an authorized document.
This protection, when in my hands, did not describe
its bearer very accurately. Indeed, it called for a man
much darker than myself, and close examination of it would
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