| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: them with haggard eyes.
Since the day when he first came to Paris Poiret junior had never gone
outside the city. He began at that time to keep a journal of his life,
in which he noted down all the striking events of his day. Du Bruel
told him that Lord Byron did the same thing. This likeness filled
Poiret junior with delight, and led him to buy the works of Lord
Byron, translated by Chastopalli, of which he did not understand a
word. At the office he was often seen in a melancholy attitude, as
though absorbed in thought, when in fact he was thinking of nothing at
all. He did not know a single person in the house where he lived, and
always carried the keys of his apartment about with him. On New-Year's
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: after all my Uncle Godfrey's legacy had been a thing unlooked for,
something out of my scheme of life that I had my youth, my salary and my
writing; and that she would wait till she was as old at Mr. Beverly's
mother."
"It was the thought of that lady which brought from Ethel the only note
of complaint she uttered in my presence during that whole dreary month."
"We were spending Sunday with a house party at Hyde Park; and driving to
church, we passed an avenue gate with a lodge. 'Rockhurst, sir,' said the
coachman. 'Whose place?' I inquired. 'The old Beverly place, sir.' Ethel
heard him tell me this; and as we went on, we saw a carriage and pair
coming down the avenue toward the gate with that look which horses always
|
