| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: the night and to remind her of the reward of her industry. The
stranger was tremulous with pity and sympathy; he threw his purse in
through a cracked pane so that it should fall at the girl's feet; and
then, without waiting to enjoy her surprise, he escaped, his cheeks
tingling.
Next morning the shy and melancholy stranger went past with a look of
deep preoccupation, but he could not escape Caroline's gratitude; she
had opened her window and affected to be digging in the square window-
box buried in snow, a pretext of which the clumsy ingenuity plainly
told her benefactor that she had been resolved not to see him only
through the pane. Her eyes were full of tears as she bowed her head,
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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 The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: "What's that?" said Cornelius.
"Consequently, I shall not bring you any bread at all, and
we shall see how it will be after eight days."
Cornelius grew pale.
"And," continued Gryphus, "we'll begin this very day. As you
are such a clever sorcerer, why, you had better change the
furniture of your room into bread; as to myself, I shall
pocket the eighteen sous which are paid to me for your
board."
"But that's murder," cried Cornelius, carried away by the
first impulse of the very natural terror with which this
 The Black Tulip |