The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: examination was favorable to him, for when he had finished his meager
meal she licked his boots with her powerful rough tongue, brushing off
with marvelous skill the dust gathered in the creases.
"Ah, but when she's really hungry!" thought the Frenchman. In spite of
the shudder this thought caused him, the soldier began to measure
curiously the proportions of the panther, certainly one of the most
splendid specimens of its race. She was three feet high and four feet
long without counting her tail; this powerful weapon, rounded like a
cudgel, was nearly three feet long. The head, large as that of a
lioness, was distinguished by a rare expression of refinement. The
cold cruelty of a tiger was dominant, it was true, but there was also
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: yet, maybe. Queer world!" he moralized. "People half killing themselves
to keep one in it who wanted to go--and one that nobody wanted to stay!"
McLean did not hear. He was musing, his eyes fixed absently in front of
him. "I would not want," he said, with hesitating utterance--"I'd not
wish for even my enemy to have a thing like what I've had to do
to-night."
Barker touched him on the arm. "If there had been another man I could
trust--"
"Trust!" broke in the cow-puncher. "Why, Doc, it is the best turn yu'
ever done me. I know I am a man now--if my nerve ain't gone."
I've known you were a man since I knew you!" said the hearty Governor.
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