| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: both hands, looked at him anxiously with his sunken
eyes. Then, just as Falk was ready to put his hand
on him, the man let go his hold and sank like a
stone. Falk reflected on these sights. His heart
revolted against the horror of death, and he said
to himself that he would struggle for every pre-
cious minute of his life.
One afternoon--as the survivors lay about on
the after deck--the carpenter, a tall man with a
black beard, spoke of the last sacrifice. There was
nothing eatable left on board. Nobody said a
Falk |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: living in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, No. 104, and the said M.
d'Espard in the Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, No. 22,'--to be
sure, the President told me he lived in this part of the town--'having
for her solicitor Maitre Desroches'--Desroches! a pettifogging jobber,
a man looked down upon by his brother lawyers, and who does his
clients no good--"
"Poor fellow!" said Bianchon, "unluckily he has no money, and he
rushes round like the devil in holy water--That is all."
" 'Has the honor to submit to you, Monsieur the President, that for a
year past the moral and intellectual powers of her husband, M.
d'Espard, have undergone so serious a change, that at the present day
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