The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring
to the front the common interests of entire proletariat,
independently of nationality. (2) In the various stages of
development which the struggle of the working class against the
bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere
represent the interests of the movement as a whole.
The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically,
the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class
parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all
others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the
great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly
 The Communist Manifesto |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: princess had flung herself into the kingdom of philosophy. She took to
reading, she who for sixteen years had felt a cordial horror for
serious things. Literature and politics are to-day what piety and
devotion once were to her sex,--the last refuge of their feminine
pretensions. In her late social circle it was said that Diane was
writing a book. Since her transformation from a queen and beauty to a
woman of intellect, the princess had contrived to make a reception in
her little house a great honor which distinguished the favored person.
Sheltered by her supposed occupation, she was able to deceive one of
her former adorers, de Marsay, the most influential personage of the
political bourgeoisie brought to the fore in July 1830. She received
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