| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: capable of judging the paintings of the Musee conclusively, of making
a striking portrait, copying an ancient master, or painting a genre
picture. The artist thus sufficed for the educational needs of the
aristocracy. But in spite of these relations with the best families in
Paris, he was independent and patriotic, and he maintained among them
that easy, brilliant, half-ironical tone, and that freedom of judgment
which characterize painters.
He had carried his scrupulous precaution into the arrangements of the
locality where his pupils studied. The entrance to the attic above his
apartments was walled up. To reach this retreat, as sacred as a harem,
it was necessary to go up a small spiral staircase made within his own
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: Watching our shadows lengthen
Under the gold street-light
When the snow was new and white.
We will never walk again
Slowly, we two,
In spring when the park is sweet
With midnight and with dew,
And the passers-by are few.
I sit and think of it all,
And the blue June twilight dies, --
Down in the clanging square
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