| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: No physician who has a soul could permit a woman of
your physique, your culture and refinement to walk
barefoot and blindfolded into such a hell of physical
torture. I will not permit it."
He walked quietly into his laboratory, prepared the
sleeping powders and gave them to her.
Six hours later she opened her eyes with eager
wonder. Aunt Abbie was busy over a bundle of fluffy
clothes. The Doctor was standing with his arms folded
behind his back, his fine, clean-shaven face in profile
looking thoughtfully over the sun-lit valley. There
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: heart to this great fungous metropolis. I have pleased myself
with considering it as a chosen spot, where the principles of
sturdy John Bullism were garnered up, like seed corn, to renew
the national character, when it had run to waste and
degeneracy. I have rejoiced also in the general spirit of
harmony that prevailed throughout it; for though there might
now and then be a few clashes of opinion between the
adherents of the cheesemonger and the apothecary, and an
occasional feud between the burial societies, yet these were but
transient clouds, and soon passed away. The neighbors met
with good-will, parted with a shake of the hand, and never
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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 Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: arrived at Frascati. When the artist held out his arms to help his
mistress to alight, he felt that she trembled from head to foot.
" 'What is the matter? You would kill me,' he cried, seeing that she
turned pale, 'if you should suffer the slightest pain of which I am,
even innocently, the cause.'
" 'A snake!' she said, pointing to a reptile which was gliding along
the edge of a ditch. 'I am afraid of the disgusting creatures.'
"Sarrasine crushed the snake's head with a blow of his foot.
" 'How could you dare to do it?' said La Zambinella, gazing at the
dead reptile with visible terror.
" 'Aha!' said the artist, with a smile, 'would you venture to say now
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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 Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: his turn of mind was melancholy and somewhat morbid--he lacked
confidence in himself; but Lucien, on the other hand, with a boldness
little to be expected from his feminine, almost effeminate, figure,
graceful though it was, Lucien possessed the Gascon temperament to the
highest degree--rash, brave, and adventurous, prone to make the most
of the bright side, and as little as possible of the dark; his was the
nature that sticks at no crime if there is anything to be gained by
it, and laughs at the vice which serves as a stepping-stone. Just now
these tendencies of ambition were held in check, partly by the fair
illusions of youth, partly by the enthusiasm which led him to prefer
the nobler methods, which every man in love with glory tries first of
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