| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: of burnt clay or does he lie on the hillside? Or does he make his
bed in the rushes?
FIRST MAN. He dwells in that cavern yonder.
MYRRHINA. What a curious place to dwell in!
FIRST MAN. Of old a centaur lived there. When the hermit came the
centaur gave a shrill cry, wept and lamented, and galloped away.
SECOND MAN. No. It was a white unicorn who lived in the cave.
When it saw the hermit coming the unicorn knelt down and worshipped
him. Many people saw it worshipping him.
FIRST MAN. I have talked with people who saw it.
* * * * *
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: spasmodic jerks; his honor had been wounded, and the pain of it drove
him on as a gust of wind whirls away a straw. He found himself at last
in the Boulevard du Temple; how he had come thither he could not tell.
It was five o'clock, and, strange to say, he had completely lost his
appetite.
But if the reader is to understand the revolution which Pons'
unexpected return at that hour was to work in the Rue de Normandie,
the promised biography of Mme. Cibot must be given in this place.
Any one passing along the Rue de Normandie might be pardoned for
thinking that he was in some small provincial town. Grass runs to seed
in the street, everybody knows everybody else, and the sight of a
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