| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: approached unnoticed, for all the multitude were looking
intently toward the fire at the foot of the oak.
Then Winfried's voice rang out, "Hail, ye sons of the
forest! A stranger claims the warmth of your fire in the
winter night."
Swiftly, and as with a single motion, a thousand eyes were
bent upon the speaker. The semicircle opened silently in the
middle; Winfried entered with his followers; it closed again
behind them.
Then, as they looked round the curving ranks, they saw
that the hue of the assemblage was not black, but
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: sufficiently distinctly: "O coglione!"
"What can be going on up there?" cried the Sub-prior, as he saw
the reliquary move.
"The saint is playing the devil," replied the Abbot.
Even as he spoke the living head tore itself away from the
lifeless body, and dropped upon the sallow cranium of the
officiating priest.
"Remember Dona Elvira!" cried the thing, with its teeth set fast
in the Abbot's head.
The Abbot's horror-stricken shriek disturbed the ceremony; all
the ecclesiastics hurried up and crowded about their chief.
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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 A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: hope will not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance
in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year
old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether
stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it
will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.
I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of
the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed,
twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one
fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep,
black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are
A Modest Proposal |
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 Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: revocandi milites; qui paulo longius aggeris petendi causa processerant
arcessendi; acies instruenda; milites cohortandi; signum dandum. Quarum
rerum magnam partem temporis brevitas et incursus hostium impediebat. His
difficultatibus duae res erant subsidio, scientia atque usus militum, quod
superioribus proeliis exercitati quid fieri oporteret non minus commode
ipsi sibi praescribere quam ab aliis doceri poterant, et quod ab opere
singulisque legionibus singulos legatos Caesar discedere nisi munitis
castris vetuerat. Hi propter propinquitatem et celeritatem hostium nihil
iam Caesaris imperium expectabant, sed per se quae videbantur
administrabant.
Caesar, necessariis rebus imperatis, ad cohortandos milites, quam [in]
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