The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: nymph Calypso, enamored of Telemachus.' Mystery and feigned names are
the resources of little minds. For my part I no longer answer masks--"
"I should love a woman who came to seek me," cried La Briere. "To all
you say I reply, my dear Canalis, that it cannot be an ordinary girl
who aspires to a distinguished man; such a girl has too little trust,
too much vanity; she is too faint-hearted. Only a star, a--"
"--princess!" cried Canalis, bursting into a shout of laughter; "only
a princess can descend to him. My dear fellow, that doesn't happen
once in a hundred years. Such a love is like that flower that blossoms
every century. Princesses, let me tell you, if they are young, rich,
and beautiful, have something else to think of; they are surrounded
 Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: we walked along for half an hour in silence, either because we were
oppressed by the heat which rose in waves from the burning sands, or
because the difficulty of walking absorbed our attention. Like
children, we held each other's hands; in fact, we could hardly have
made a dozen steps had we walked arm in arm. The path which led to
Batz was not so much as traced. A gust of wind was enough to efface
all tracks left by the hoofs of horses or the wheels of carts; but the
practised eye of our guide could recognize by scraps of mud or the
dung of cattle the road that crossed that desert, now descending
towards the sea, then rising landward according to either the fall of
the ground or the necessity of rounding some breastwork of rock. By
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