| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: the accent, the emphasis and the look of one we love lend so much
weight, she asserted that a man who was obliged to expend his
time and the charms of his wit on several women at once could not
be the object of any very warm affection. Thus the painter was
led, as much by the tyranny of his passion as by the exactions of
a girl in love, to live exclusively in the little apartment where
everything attracted him.
And never was there a purer or more ardent love. On both sides
the same trustfulness, the same delicacy, gave their passion
increase without the aid of those sacrifices by which many
persons try to prove their affection. Between these two there was
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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 Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: a - a gentleman."
The Chief Inspector, steady-eyed, nodded briefly his comprehension,
and opened the door. Mrs Verloc, behind the counter, might have
heard but did not see his departure, pursued by the aggressive
clatter of the bell. She sat at her post of duty behind the
counter. She sat rigidly erect in the chair with two dirty pink
pieces of paper lying spread out at her feet. The palms of her
hands were pressed convulsively to her face, with the tips of the
fingers contracted against the forehead, as though the skin had
been a mask which she was ready to tear off violently. The perfect
immobility of her pose expressed the agitation of rage and despair,
The Secret Agent |
