The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: don't yell."
I gave him the key and he fitted it quietly in the lock.
Arabella, just inside, must have heard, for she snarled.
But the snarl turned into a yelp, as if she'd been suddenly
kicked.
Mr. Pierce, with his hand on the knob, turned and looked at me in
the candle-light. Then he opened the door.
Arabella gave another yelp and rushed out; she went between my
feet like a shot and almost overthrew me, and when I'd got my
balance again I looked into the room. Mr. Pierce was at the
window, staring out, and the room was empty.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: the splendid suite of rooms to receive the guests and introduce them
to their host and hostess. On Tuesday morning I got a note from Mr.
Eliot Warburton (brother of "Hochelaga") to come to his room at two
o'clock and look at some drawings. To our surprise we found quite a
party seated at lunch, and a collection of many agreeable persons
and some lions and lionesses. There was Lord Ross, the great
astronomer; Baroness Rothschild, a lovely Jewess; Miss Strickland,
the authoress of the "Queens of England"; "Eothen," and many more.
Mr. Polk, CHARGE at Naples, and brother of the President, dined with
us, and Miss Murray, and in the evening came Mr. and Mrs. McLean, he
a son of Judge McLean, of Ohio.
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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 The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: He told of his early dread of fear and baseness, and of the slow
development, expansion and complication of his idea of self-respect
until he saw that tgarden and made off down the winding road.
"Stop him!" cried Benham, and started in pursuit, suddenly afraid
for Prothero.
The Chinese are a people of great curiosity, and a small pebble
sometimes starts an avalanche. . . .
White pieced together his conception of the circles of disturbance
that spread out from Benham's pursuit of Prothero's flying
messenger.
For weeks and months the great town had been uneasy in all its ways
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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 From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: but what is carried on under the merchants of Falmouth or Truro.
The chief thing that is to be said of this town is that it sends
members to Parliament, as does also Grampound, a market-town; and
Burro', about four miles farther up the water. This place, indeed,
has a claim to antiquity, and is an appendix to the Duchy of
Cornwall, of which it holds at a fee farm rent and pays to the
Prince of Wales as duke 10 pounds 11s. 1d. per annum. It has no
parish church, but only a chapel-of-ease to an adjacent parish.
Penryn is up the same branch of the Avon as Falmouth, but stands
four miles higher towards the west; yet ships come to it of as
great a size as can come to Truro itself. It is a very pleasant,
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