| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: Cruchots.
"Keep a girl of twenty-three on bread and water!" cried Monsieur de
Bonfons; "without any reason, too! Why, that constitutes wrongful
cruelty; she can contest, as much in as upon--"
"Come, nephew, spare us your legal jargon," said the notary. "Set your
mind at ease, madame; I will put a stop to such treatment to-morrow."
Eugenie, hearing herself mentioned, came out of her room.
"Gentlemen," she said, coming forward with a proud step, "I beg you
not to interfere in this matter. My father is master in his own house.
As long as I live under his roof I am bound to obey him. His conduct
is not subject to the approbation or the disapprobation of the world;
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: riding along beside a wood, a dwarf, who was puffed up like a
toad, had tied the horses' tails together, and walked beside
them, beating them remorselessly with a four-knotted scourge
until they bled, thinking thereby to be doing something
wonderful. Thus they were brought along in shame by the giant
and the dwarf. Stopping in the plain in front of the city gate,
the giant shouts out to the noble lord that he will kill his sons
unless he delivers to him his daughter, whom he will surrender to
his vile fellows to become their sport. For he no longer loves
her nor esteems her, that he should deign to abase himself to
her. She shall be constantly beset by a thousand lousy and
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