| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced
additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded;
and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!
In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--
if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which
we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble
struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged
ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest
shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: think the sensations of this sort you remember will be
somewhat vague, and come to not much more than a blunt,
general sense of heat on summer days, or a blunt, general
sense of wellbeing in bed. And here, of course, you will
understand pleasurable sensations; for overmastering pain -
the most deadly and tragical element in life, and the true
commander of man's soul and body - alas! pain has its own way
with all of us; it breaks in, a rude visitant, upon the fairy
garden where the child wanders in a dream, no less surely than
it rules upon the field of battle, or sends the immortal war-
god whimpering to his father; and innocence, no more than
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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 The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: brook. While I was there I saw shepherd Janci coming along and I
hid behind the willows. He almost discovered me once, but Janci's
a dreamer, he sees things nobody else sees - and he doesn't see
things that everybody else does see. I couldn't help laughing at
his sleepy face. But I didn't laugh when I came back to the asylum.
Gyuri was waiting for me at the door. When he saw that I hadn't
brought the candlesticks he beat me and tortured me worse than he'd
ever done before."
"And you didn't tell anyone?"
"Why, no; because I was afraid that if I told on him, I'd never be
able to go out again."
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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 Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: Inferior Court of Appeal for the Department of the Seine, and charged
by the President with the duty of examining you as to certain facts
set forth in a petition for a Commission in Lunacy on the part of the
Marquise d'Espard."
The old man withdrew. When the lawyer and the Marquis were alone, the
clerk shut the door, and seated himself unceremoniously at the office
table, where he laid out his papers and prepared to take down his
notes. Popinot had still kept his eye on M. d'Espard; he was watching
the effect on him of this crude statement, so painful for a man in
full possession of his reason. The Marquis d'Espard, whose face was
usually pale, as are those of fair men, suddenly turned scarlet with
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