| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: were women, wishing they were men; I have always regarded them with
pity. If I had to choose, I should still elect to be a woman. A fine
pleasure, indeed, to owe one's triumph to force, and to all those
powers which you give yourselves by the laws you make! But to see you
at our feet, saying and doing foolish things,--ah! it is an
intoxicating pleasure to feel within our souls that weakness triumphs!
But when we triumph, we ought to keep silence, under pain of losing
our empire. Beaten, a woman's pride should gag her. The slave's
silence alarms the master."
This chatter was uttered in a voice so softly sarcastic, so dainty,
and with such coquettish motions of the head, that d'Arthez, to whom
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: it on them in broad daylight. We ordered the di'monds
sent to the hotel for us to see if we wanted to buy,
and when we was examining them we had paste counterfeits
all ready, and THEM was the things that went back
to the shop when we said the water wasn't quite fine
enough for twelve thousand dollars."
"Twelve-thousand-dollars!" Tom says. "Was they really
worth all that money, do you reckon?"
"Every cent of it."
"And you fellows got away with them?"
"As easy as nothing. I don't reckon the julery people know
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