| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: "You unconverted idiot!" hissed Robbins, close to his ear--"pool!"
"Agreed!" said Dumars, coolly. "I couldn't raise three hundred and
fifty dollars with a search-warrant, but I can stand half. What you
come bidding against me for?"
"I thought I was the only fool in the crowd," explained Robbins.
No one else bidding, the statue was knocked down to the syndicate at
their last offer. Dumars remained with the prize, while Robbins
hurried forth to wring from the resources and credit of both the
price. He soon returned with the money, and the two musketeers loaded
their precious package into a carriage and drove with it to Dumars's
room, in old Chartres Street, nearby. They lugged it, covered with a
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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 Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: From dramatics he went to politics, special stories and feature
work. The big assignments were given him.
It was his duty to meet famous people and interview them. The
chance to get behind the scenes at the real inside story was given
him. Because of this many reputations were pricked like bubbles so
far as he was concerned. The mask of greatness was like the false
faces children wear to conceal their own. In the one or two really
big men he met Jeff discovered a humility and simplicity that came
from self-forgetfulness. They were too busy with their vision of
truth to pose for the public admiration.
Part 2
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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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: it with powder, and at the critical moment said to his accomplice,
"You have only to nod, and the whole will explode!"
Esther of old, knowing only the morality peculiar to courtesans,
thought all these attentions so natural, that she measured her rivals
only by what they could get men to spend on them. Ruined fortunes are
the conduct-stripes of these creatures. Carlos, in counting on
Esther's memory, had not calculated wrongly.
These tricks of warfare, these stratagems employed a thousand times,
not only by these women, but by spendthrifts too, did not disturb
Esther's mind. She felt nothing but her personal degradation; she
loved Lucien, she was to be the Baron de Nucingen's mistress "by
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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 Underground City by Jules Verne: glow on the horizon be? Is it a forest on fire?"
"No, it is the rising moon, Nell."
"To be sure, that's the moon," cried Jack Ryan, "a fine
big silver plate, which the spirits of air hand round and round
the sky to collect the stars in, like money."
"Why, Jack," said the engineer, laughing, "I had no idea you
could strike out such bold comparisons!"
"Well, but, Mr. Starr, it is a just comparison. Don't you see
the stars disappear as the moon passes on? so I suppose they
drop into it."
"What you mean to say, Jack, is that the superior brilliancy
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