| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: plied from hour to hour to and from the village thus buried in the subsoil
of the county, and which bore the rather ambitious title of Coal Town.
Arrived in Coal Town, the visitor found himself in a place where
electricity played a principal part as an agent of heat and light.
Although the ventilation shafts were numerous, they were not
sufficient to admit much daylight into New Aberfoyle, yet it had
abundance of light. This was shed from numbers of electric discs;
some suspended from the vaulted roofs, others hanging on
the natural pillars--all, whether suns or stars in size, were fed
by continuous currents produced from electro-magnetic machines.
When the hour of rest arrived, an artificial night was easily
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: Mountebanks, gypsies, Tsiganes, Zingaris, mingled with
merchants from Persia, Turkey, India, Turkestan, China,
filled the court and offices of the police station.
Everyone was in a hurry, for the means of transport
would be much sought after among this crowd of banished
people, and those who did not set about it soon ran a great
risk of not being able to leave the town in the prescribed
time, which would expose them to some brutal treatment
from the governor's agents.
Owing to the strength of his elbows Michael was able
to cross the court. But to get into the office and up to
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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 In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "But they are beautifully kept," said the sister of the Baroness shyly.
The minx! Was love then a question of manicure?
"How I should adore to kiss you," murmured the student. "But you know I am
suffering from severe nasal catarrh, and I dare not risk giving it to you.
Sixteen times last night did I count myself sneezing. And three different
handkerchiefs."
I threw Morike into the lilac bush, and went back to the house. A great
automobile snorted at the front door. In the salon great commotion. The
Baroness was paying a surprise visit to her little daughter. Clad in a
yellow mackintosh she stood in the middle of the room questioning the
manager. And every guest the pension contained was grouped about her, even
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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 A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: There is something alarming about the young actor's old age; he is
so very old; you feel nervous lest senility should be infectious.
And what an admirable Alcalde he makes! What a delightful, uneasy
smile! what pompous stupidity! what wooden dignity! what judicial
hesitation! How well the man knows that black may be white, or
white black! How eminently well he is fitted to be Minister to a
constitutional monarch! The stranger answers every one of his
inquiries by a question; Vignol retorts in such a fashion, that
the person under examination elicits all the truth from the
Alcalde. This piece of pure comedy, with a breath of Moliere
throughout, puts the house in good humor. The people on the stage
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