| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: Against a faery tune.
Beneath the silken silence
The crystal branches slept,
And dreaming thro' the dew-fall
The cold white blossoms wept.
A Fantasy
Her voice is like clear water
That drips upon a stone
In forests far and silent
Where Quiet plays alone.
Her thoughts are like the lotus
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: for things, and how to avoid being cheated by her servants. He told
her she could rely on Constantin and make him her major-domo. Thaddeus
had trained the man thoroughly. By the end of May he thought the
countess fully competent to carry on her affairs alone; for Clementine
was one of those far-sighted women, full of instinct, who have an
innate genius as mistress of a household.
This position of affairs, which Thaddeus had led up to naturally, did
not end without further cruel trials; his sufferings were fated not to
be as sweet and tender as he was trying to make them. The poor lover
forgot to reckon on the hazard of events. Adam fell seriously ill, and
Thaddeus, instead of leaving the house, stayed to nurse his friend.
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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 Human Drift by Jack London: about to stoop for motor cloak and bonnet, but he forestall her,
holds cloak and helps her into it.] Thank you. [She takes off
wig, fluffs her own hair becomingly, and puts on bonnet, looking
every inch a pretty young girl, ready for an automobile ride.]
FITZSIMMONS. [Who, all the time, watching her transformation, has
been growing bashful, now handing her the cigarette case.] Here's
the cigarette case. You may k-k-keep it.
MAUD. [Looking at him, hesitates, then takes it.] I thank you--
er--Bob. I shall treasure it all my life. [He is very
embarrassed.] Why, I do believe you're bashful. What is the
matter?
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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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: taught to speak, and iron hands to weave, and the slender ship to
brave and to outstrip the tempest. To the ignorant the great
results alone are admirable; to the knowing, and to Fleeming in
particular, rather the infinite device and sleight of hand that
made them possible.
A notion was current at the time that, in such a shop as
Fairbairn's, a pupil would never be popular unless he drank with
the workmen and imitated them in speech and manner. Fleeming, who
would do none of these things, they accepted as a friend and
companion; and this was the subject of remark in Manchester, where
some memory of it lingers till to-day. He thought it one of the
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