| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: At the words the priest came out of his hiding-place and stood in
their midst.
"I cannot believe, monsieur, that you can be one of our persecutors,"
he said, addressing the stranger, "and I trust you. What do you want
with me?"
The priest's holy confidence, the nobleness expressed in every line in
his face, would have disarmed a murderer. For a moment the mysterious
stranger, who had brought an element of excitement into lives of
misery and resignation, gazed at the little group; then he turned to
the priest and said, as if making a confidence, "Father, I came to beg
you to celebrate a mass for the repose of the soul of--of--of an
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: an earnest manner. Captain Dalgetty, however, thought it
necessary to enter a protest.
"Gentlemen cavaliers," he said, "I drink these healths, PRIMO,
both out of respect to this honourable and hospitable roof-tree,
and, SECUNDO, because I hold it not good to be preceese in such
matters, INTER POCULA; but I protest, agreeable to the warrandice
granted by this honourable lord, that it shall be free to me,
notwithstanding my present complaisance, to take service with the
Covenanters to-morrow, providing I shall be so minded."
M'Aulay and his English guests stared at this declaration, which
would have certainly bred new disturbance, if Lord Menteith had
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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 Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: relations in life which it seems equally wrong to break or to
perpetuate. He neither loved nor respected his wife. "God
knows," he writes, "my choice was as random as blind man's
buff." He consoles himself by the thought that he has acted
kindly to her; that she "has the most sacred enthusiasm of
attachment to him;" that she has a good figure; that she has
a "wood-note wild," "her voice rising with ease to B
natural," no less. The effect on the reader is one of
unmingled pity for both parties concerned. This was not the
wife who (in his own words) could "enter into his favourite
studies or relish his favourite authors;" this was not even a
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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 Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: in a lot of them superstitions o' hers, and of course I
paid no attention to that one, because I could see my-
self that the world was the shape of a plate, and flat.
I used to go up on the hill, and take a look around
and prove it for myself, because I reckon the best way
to get a sure thing on a fact is to go and examine for
yourself, and not take anybody's say-so. But I had to
give in now that the widder was right. That is, she
was right as to the rest of the world, but she warn't
right about the part our village is in; that part is the
shape of a plate, and flat, I take my oath!
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