The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: them if they are unable to comprehend the thought of the
lawgiver? Clearly, only by associating the legislative power with
such displays of splendor and majesty as will impress their
senses and awe their imaginations. The god turned lawgiver, in
short, must be crowned Pontiff and King. Since he cannot be known
to the common folk as their superior in wisdom, he must be known
to them as their superior in riches, as the dweller in castles,
the wearer of gold and purple, the eater of mighty feasts, the
commander of armies, and the wielder of powers of life and death,
of salvation and damnation after death. Something may be done in
this way without corruption whilst the golden age still endures.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: Study, for the understanding of which it was necessary to explain how
it happened that the quartermaster Diard married Juana di Mancini,
that Montefiore and Diard were intimately known to each other, and to
show plainly what blood and what passions were in Madame Diard.
CHAPTER III
THE HISTORY OF MADAME DIARD
By the time that the quartermaster had fulfilled all the long and
dilatory formalities without which no French soldier can be married,
he was passionately in love with Juana di Mancini, and Juana had had
time to think of her coming destiny.
An awful destiny! Juana, who felt neither esteem nor love for Diard,
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