| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: evening Guillaume, shut up with his assistant and his wife, balanced
his accounts, carried on the balance, wrote to debtors in arrears, and
made out bills. All three were busy over this enormous labor, of which
the result could be stated on a sheet of foolscap, proving to the head
of the house that there was so much to the good in hard cash, so much
in goods, so much in bills and notes; that he did not owe a sou; that
a hundred or two hundred thousand francs were owing to him; that the
capital had been increased; that the farmlands, the houses, or the
investments were extended, or repaired, or doubled. Whence it became
necessary to begin again with increased ardor, to accumulate more
crown-pieces, without its ever entering the brain of these laborious
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: it."
I handled the money and kept the books for the union, and this
work in addition to my campaign efforts wore me down at last. Two
nights before the election I decided that I had small chance of
winning. I was on the Republican ticket, and the Republicans had
been in office four years and their administration had proved
unfortunate. There had been rich pickings for contractors in that
new and overgrown city, and the people blamed the Republicans and
were determined on a change.
I was passing the office of the opposition editor late at night
after canvassing for votes all day. I thought of the nasty slurs
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