The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: whistling of men, and there were the two boys coming back with the
cattle, which they had found trekking along all together. The lions
lifted their heads and listened, then bounded off without a sound--and I
fainted.
"The lions came back no more that night, and by the next morning my
nerves had got pretty straight again; but I was full of wrath when I
thought of all that I had gone through at the hands, or rather noses, of
those four brutes, and of the fate of my after-ox Kaptein. He was a
splendid ox, and I was very fond of him. So wroth was I that like a
fool I determined to attack the whole family of them. It was worthy of
a greenhorn out on his first hunting trip; but I did it nevertheless.
 Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: want Baudoyer; the minister wants Rabourdin."
Bixiou. "Good!"
Dutocq. "To ease the matter off, the minister, who sees he must give
way, wants to strangle the difficulty. We must find some good reason
for getting rid of Rabourdin. Now somebody has lately unearthed a
paper of his, exposing the present system of administration and
wanting to reform it; and that paper is going the rounds,--at least,
this is how I understand the matter. Make the drawing we talked of; in
so doing you'll play the game of all the big people, and help the
minister, the court, the clergy,--in short, everybody; and you'll get
your appointment. Now do you understand me?"
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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 Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: not return to earth and time and place until the
minister seized her right hand and joined it to Jim's.
"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put
asunder!
"Forasmuch as James Anthony and Mary Adams have
consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed
the same before God and this company, and thereto have
given and pledged their troth, each to the other, and
have declared the same by giving and receiving a Ring,
and by joining hands; I pronounce that they are Man and
Wife, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
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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 Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: than to stand before the frown of a court of justice.
Having, therefore, passed the day with anguish in
his heart and distraction in his looks, he seized at
night a very large sum of money in the compting-
house, and setting out he knew not whither, was
heard of no more.
The consequence of his flight was the ruin of
Candidus; ruin surely undeserved and irreproachable,
and such as the laws of a just government ought
either to prevent or repair: nothing is more inequitable
than that one man should suffer for the crimes
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