| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: check, he desires to retire into France and to live here as
a private individual. What do you say to this project?"
The cardinal had listened without permitting a single fibre
of his face to betray what he felt, and his smile remained
as it ever was -- false and flattering; and when the queen
finished speaking, he said:
"Do you think, madame, that France, agitated and disturbed
as it is, would be a safe retreat for a dethroned king? How
will the crown, which is scarce firmly set on the head of
Louis XIV., support a double weight?"
"The weight was not so heavy when I was in peril,"
Twenty Years After |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "What evidence have we that this man did not commit suicide? We
have the evidence of the disorder in the room, a disorder that
could have been made just as well by the man himself before he ended
his own life. We have the evidence of a letter to some unknown,
making plans for pleasure during the next days, and speaking of
further plans, presumably concerning business, for the future. In
a town the size of G-, where every one must have read of the murder,
no one has come forward claiming to be the friend for whom this
letter was written. Until this Unknown makes himself known, the
letter as an evidence points rather to premeditated suicide than to
the contrary. Oh, if I could only have seen the body! They tell
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