| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: officer as well, therefore a man with a doubly sensitive code of
honour and a social position to maintain; and this man, morbidly
sensitive probably, had a daughter who had inherited his
sensitiveness and his high ideals of honour, a daughter married to
a rich husband. But he had another child, a son without any sense
of honour at all, who, although also an officer, failed to live in
a manner worthy his position. This son was now in Marburg, where
there were no expensive pleasures, no all-night cafes and gambling
dens, for a man to lose his time in, his money, and his honour also.
For such must have been the case with Colonel Leining's son before
his exile to Marburg. The old butler had hinted at the truth. The
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: reflected and resigned himself to his fate. The supper was served.
Sarrasine and La Zambinella seated themselves side by side without
ceremony. During the first half of the feast the artists exercised
some restraint, and the sculptor was able to converse with the singer.
He found that she was very bright and quick-witted; but she was
amazingly ignorant and seemed weak and superstitious. The delicacy of
her organs was reproduced in her understanding. When Vitagliani opened
the first bottle of champagne, Sarrasine read in his neighbor's eyes a
shrinking dread of the report caused by the release of the gas. The
involuntary shudder of that thoroughly feminine temperament was
interpreted by the amorous artist as indicating extreme delicacy of
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