| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: "No," said the artist. "I am expected at the chateau. Besides, I took
something at the Lion d'Argent just before starting."
"And you?" said Georges to Oscar.
"I have breakfasted," replied Oscar.
Oscar would have given ten years of his life for boots and straps to
his trousers. He sneezed, he coughed, he spat, and swallowed the smoke
with ill-disguised grimaces.
"You don't know how to smoke," said Schinner; "look at me!"
With a motionless face Schinner breathed in the smoke of his cigar and
let it out through his nose without the slightest contraction of
feature. Then he took another whiff, kept the smoke in his throat,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: seventy ships. His naval superiority was undisputed, but he was forced
to send to Athens for moneys, seeing his fleet was large and his wants
not trifling.
BOOK VI
I
B.C. 374. The Athenians and Lacedaemonians were thus engaged. But to
return to the Thebans. After the subjugation of the cities in Boeotia,
they extended the area of aggression and marched into Phocis. The
Phocians, on their side, sent an embassy to Lacedaemon, and pleaded
that without assistance from that power they must inevitably yield to
Thebes. The Lacedaemonians in response conveyed by sea into the
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