| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: to throw me overboard? Did even the little which I knew of him, make
me a danger of which he must rid himself? But in that case, he might
better have left me at the end of his anchor line. That would have
saved him the necessity of drowning me over again.
I turned, I walked to the stern, I stopped full in front of him.
Then, at length, he fixed full upon me a glance that burned like a
flame.
"Are you the captain?" I asked.
He was silent.
"This boat! Is it really the 'Terror?'"
To this question also there was no response. Then I reached toward
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: prophesied that he would by her who wore the shape of Mameena at
the memorable scene in the Valley of Bones when I was present.
Often I have thought of him dressed in a black coat and seated in
that villa in Melbury Road in the suburb of London which I
understand is populated by artists. A strange contrast truly to
the savage prince receiving the salute of triumph after the
Battle of the Tugela in which he won the kingship, or to the
royal monarch to whose presence I had been summoned at Ulundi.
However, he was brought back to Zululand again by a British
man-of-war, re-installed to a limited chieftainship by Sir
Theophilus Shepstone, and freed from the strangling embrace of
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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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: sordid education, hindered the perfect union of her soul with
Theodore's; she loved him well enough to absolve him and condemn
herself. She shed tears of blood, and perceived, too late, that there
are /mesalliances/ of the spirit as well as of rank and habits. As she
recalled the early raptures of their union, she understood the full
extent of that lost happiness, and accepted the conclusion that so
rich a harvest of love was in itself a whole life, which only sorrow
could pay for. At the same time, she loved too truly to lose all hope.
At one-and-twenty she dared undertake to educate herself, and make her
imagination, at least, worthy of that she admired. "If I am not a
poet," thought she, "at any rate, I will understand poetry."
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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 Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: By the winds of summer, ran,
Till the land was in a blaze,
And the cities far and near,
Sayeth Ben Joshua Ben Meir,
In his Book of the Words of the Days,
"Were taken as a man
Would take the tip of his ear."
INTERLUDE
"Now that is after my own heart,"
The Poet cried; "one understands
Your swarthy hero Scanderbeg,
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