| 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: unforeseen circumstances that it changed what might have been a
trivial electoral struggle into a drama possessing wider and more
varied interests.
The man who now appears in this narrative will play so considerable a
part in it that it seems necessary to install him, as it were, by
means of retrospective and somewhat lengthy explanations. But to
suspend the course of the narrative for this purpose would be to fly
in the face of every rule of art and expose the present pious guardian
of literary orthodoxy to the wrath of critics. In presence of this
difficulty, the author would find himself greatly embarrassed, if his
lucky star had not placed in his hands a correspondence in which, with
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: judgment.
But, while he was planning and pondering, the boys became young
men, and he was an old man. Old, and prematurely broken; for he
had worked much, borne much, and his large frame held only a
moderate measure of vital force. A great weariness fell upon him,
and his powers began to give way, at first slowly, but then with
accelerated failure. He saw the end coming, long before his sons
suspected it; his doubt, for their sakes, was the only thing which
made it unwelcome. It was "upon his mind" (as his Quaker neighbors
would say) to speak to them of the future, and at last the proper
moment came.
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