| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: ready to face many more. He has done much, and will do yet
more." Every one is overjoyed at hearing this welcome news. The
news travelled fast, and was noised about, until it was known by
all. Their strength and courage rise, so that they slay many of
those still alive, and apparently because of the example of a
single knight they work greater havoc than because of all the
rest combined. And if it had not been so near evening, all would
have gone away defeated; but night came on so dark that they had
to separate.
(Vv. 2451-2614.) When the battle was over, all the captives
pressed about the knight, grasping his rein on either side, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: would fall upon the blankets. There lives no more
industrious creature than a bore.
And now that I have named to the reader all our animals and
insects without exception - only I find I have forgotten the
flies - he will be able to appreciate the singular privacy
and silence of our days. It was not only man who was
excluded: animals, the song of birds, the lowing of cattle,
the bleating of sheep, clouds even, and the variations of the
weather, were here also wanting; and as, day after day, the
sky was one dome of blue, and the pines below us stood
motionless in the still air, so the hours themselves were
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: And now, believe that the writer would not, for the wealth of England,
steal from poesy a single lie with which to embellish this narrative.
The following is a true history, on which you may safely spend the
treasures of your sensibility--if you have any.
In these days the French language has as many idioms and represents as
many idiosyncracies as there are varieties of men in the great family
of France. It is extremely curious and amusing to listen to the
different interpretations or versions of the same thing or the same
event by the various species which compose the genus Parisian,--
"Parisian" is here used merely to generalize our remark.
Therefore, if you should say to an individual of the species
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: nothing, the saying which had arisen in the country, that Freda
played with men as a child with bubbles. Not a word was spoken.
Prince stepped aside, and a few moments later might have been seen
resigning, with warm incoherence, the post to which he had been
unfaithful.
A woman, flexible of form, slender, yet rhythmic of strength in
every movement, now pausing with this group, now scanning that,
urged a restless and devious course among the revellers. Men
recognized the furs, and marvelled,--men who should have served
upon the door committee; but they were not prone to speech. Not
so with the women. They had better eyes for the lines of figure
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