| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: they reached the door Louis XI. said to his silversmith, "Are there
two keys to the lock?"
"No, sire."
The king then examined the structure of the door, which was braced
with large plates and bars of iron, all of which converged to a secret
lock, the key of which was kept by Cornelius.
After examining everything, the king sent for Tristan, and ordered him
to post several of his men for the night, and with the greatest
secrecy, in the mulberry trees on the embankment and on the roofs of
the adjoining houses, and to assemble at once the rest of his men and
escort him back to Plessis, so as to give the idea in the town that he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: would rouse a man of his disposition like a call to battle.
The lad introduced by marriage under his roof was of a
character to sympathise; the public usefulness of the service
would appeal to his judgment, the perpetual need for fresh
expedients stimulate his ingenuity. And there was another
attraction which, in the younger man at least, appealed to,
and perhaps first aroused, a profound and enduring sentiment
of romance: I mean the attraction of the life. The seas into
which his labours carried the new engineer were still scarce
charted, the coasts still dark; his way on shore was often far
beyond the convenience of any road; the isles in which he must
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