| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: hasn't any deceit in her, and that kind aren't ever expecting it in
another person.
"It was a grand race. The whole post was there, and there was such
another whooping and shouting when the seventeen kids came flying
down the turf and sailing over the hurdles - oh, beautiful to see!
Half-way down, it was kind of neck and neck, and anybody's race and
nobody's. Then, what should happen but a cow steps out and puts
her head down to munch grass, with her broadside to the battalion,
and they a-coming like the wind; they split apart to flank her, but
SHE? - why, she drove the spurs home and soared over that cow like
a bird! and on she went, and cleared the last hurdle solitary and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: earth: but in some future civilisation--it may be in far lands
beyond the sea--when all that you and we have made and done shall be
as the forest-grown mounds of the old nameless civilisers of the
Mississippi valley.
RONDELET, {7} THE HUGUENOT NATURALIST {8}
"Apollo, god of medicine, exiled from the rest of the earth, was
straying once across the Narbonnaise in Gaul, seeking to fix his
abode there. Driven from Asia, from Africa, and from the rest of
Europe, he wandered through all the towns of the province in search
of a place propitious for him and for his disciples. At last he
perceived a new city, constructed from the ruins of Maguelonne, 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 The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: Filled with disdain, with rage inflamed,
Both of herself and sex ashamed,
The nymph stood silent out of spite,
Nor would vouchsafe to set them right.
Away the fair detractors went,
And gave, by turns, their censures vent.
She's not so handsome in my eyes:
For wit, I wonder where it lies.
She's fair and clean, and that's the most;
But why proclaim her for a toast?
A baby face, no life, no airs,
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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 Recruit by Honore de Balzac: Madame de Dey shuddered.
"Have you nothing to reveal to me?" he demanded.
"Nothing," she replied, astonished.
"Ah! madame," cried the prosecutor, changing his tone and seating
himself beside her, "at this moment, for want of a word between us,
you and I may be risking our heads on the scaffold. I have too long
observed your character, your soul, your manners, to share the error
into which you have persuaded your friends this evening. You are, I
cannot doubt, expecting your son."
The countess made a gesture of denial; but she had turned pale, the
muscles of her face contracted from the effort that she made to
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