| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: how strong it is."
The shock which the report had given Smilash answered him his
question. "Make a note that wishes for the destruction of the
human race, however rational and sincere, are contrary to
nature," he said, recovering his spirits. "Besides, what a
precious fool I should be if I were working at an international
association of creatures only fit for destruction! Hi, lady! One
word, Miss!" This was to Miss Ward, who had skated into his
neighborhood. "It bein' a cold morning, and me havin' a poor and
common circulation, would it be looked on as a liberty if I was
to cut a slide here or take a turn in the corner all to myself?"
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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 Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: with tears, he caught her all trembling by the hand and led her to the
old master.
"There!" he cried; "is she not worth all the masterpieces in the
world?"
Frenhofer quivered. Gillette stood before him in the ingenuous, simple
attitude of a young Georgian, innocent and timid, captured by brigands
and offered to a slave-merchant. A modest blush suffused her cheeks,
her eyes were lowered, her hands hung at her sides, strength seemed to
abandon her, and her tears protested against the violence done to her
purity. Poussin cursed himself, and repented of his folly in bringing
this treasure from their peaceful garret. Once more he became a lover
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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 Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: fatal marriage, if, indeed, she persisted in making it, assuring her
that she should never cease to think of her darling child. Here the
falling tears had effaced some words of the letter.
"Oh, mother!" cried Ginevra, deeply moved.
She felt the impulse to rush home, to breathe the blessed air of her
father's house, to fling herself at his feet, to see her mother. She
was springing forward to accomplish this wish, when Luigi entered. At
the mere sight of him her filial emotion vanished; her tears were
stopped, and she no longer had the strength to abandon that loving and
unfortunate youth. To be the sole hope of a noble being, to love him
and then abandon him!--that sacrifice is the treachery of which young
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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 Touchstone by Edith Wharton: the most natural and unartificial thing to say, and his voice
seemed to come from the outside, as though he were speaking behind
a marionette. "Do you want to?"
"Just as you please," she said, compliantly. No affectation of
indifference could have been as baffling as her compliance.
Glennard, of late, was beginning to feel that the surface which, a
year ago, he had taken for a sheet of clear glass, might, after
all, be a mirror reflecting merely his own conception of what lay
behind it.
"Do you like Flamel?" he suddenly asked; to which, still engaged
with her tea, she returned the feminine answer--"I thought you
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