| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: signs of an honorable indigence were not lost, were so many fresh
wounds to the lad's vanity.
"The first place was engaged for Oscar," said the mother to Pierrotin.
"Take the back seat," she said to the boy, looking fondly at him with
a loving smile.
Oh! how Oscar regretted that trouble and sorrow had destroyed his
mother's beauty, and that poverty and self-sacrifice prevented her
from being better dressed! One of the young men, the one who wore top-
boots and spurs, nudged the other to make him take notice of Oscar's
mother, and the other twirled his moustache with a gesture which
signified,--
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: gentlemen; and the payment is not shown by receipts under private
seal, which might be questioned: they are payments made before a
notary, properly authenticated; and according to the inflexible
requirements of this Court they have been examined and verified by
the proper authority. We now ask you to restore Birotteau, not to
honor, but to all the rights of which he was deprived. In doing
this you are doing justice. Such exhibitions of character are so
rare in this Court that we cannot refrain from testifying to the
petitioner how heartily we applaud his conduct, which an august
approval has already privately encouraged."
The prosecuting officer closed by reading his charge in the customary
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
