| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: acceptable to the viceroy of Arcis. The mere nomination of a man
against his grandson was a flagrant act of hostility and ingratitude,
and a check to the count's provincial importance which must be removed
and punished at any cost.
Still, when the first news of his electoral ambition reached his
father-in-law, Beauvisage was met by an astonishment little flattering
to his feelings and not encouraging. The old notary had gauged his
son-in-law once for all, and to his just and upright mind the idea of
Phileas as a public man produced in its way the disagreeable effect
that discordant instruments produce upon the ear. If it be true that
no man is a prophet in his own country, he is often even less so in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: willed to save me; they have not tried that I should forgive them!'
"I said to him, 'See here, be thou content; do not forgive: forget this
soul and its injury; go on your way. In the next world perhaps--'
"He cried, 'Go from me, you understand nothing! What is the next world to
me! I am lost now, today. I cannot see the sunlight shine, the dust is in
my throat, the sand is in my eyes! Go from me, you know nothing! Oh, once
again before I die to see that the world is beautiful! Oh, God, God, I
cannot live and not love. I cannot live and hate. Oh, God, God, God!' So
I left him crying out and came back here."
God said, "This man's soul must be saved."
And the angel said "How?"
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