The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: my dear Chettam. Ladislaw has been invaluable, most satisfactory.
I consider that I have done this part of the country a service by
bringing him--by bringing him, you know." Mr. Brooke ended with a nod,
turning round to give it.
"It's a pity this part of the country didn't do without him,
that's all I have to say about it. At any rate, as Dorothea's
brother-in-law, I feel warranted in objecting strongly to his being
kept here by any action on the part of her friends. You admit,
I hope, that I have a right to speak about what concerns the dignity
of my wife's sister?"
Sir James was getting warm.
 Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: have great influence on the mind of his master. Once decided,
Beauvouloir had confidence in the chances and changes of life; it
might be that the duke would die before the marriage; besides, there
were many examples of such marriage; a peasant girl in Dauphine,
Francoise Mignot, had lately married the Marechal d'Hopital; the son
of the Connetable Anne de Montmorency had married Diane, daughter of
Henri II. and a Piedmontese lady named Philippa Duc.
During this mental deliberation in which paternal love measured all
probabilities and discussed both the good and the evil chances,
striving to foresee the future and weighing its elements, Gabrielle
was walking in the garden and gathering flowers for the vases of that
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