| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: the glory of contest; it is tragic, but it is passive; and
yet, in so far as it is aleatory, and a peril sensibly
touching them, it does truly season the men's lives. Of
those who fail, I do not speak - despair should be sacred;
but to those who even modestly succeed, the changes of their
life bring interest: a job found, a shilling saved, a dainty
earned, all these are wells of pleasure springing afresh for
the successful poor; and it is not from these but from the
villa-dweller that we hear complaints of the unworthiness of
life. Much, then, as the average of the proletariat would
gain in this new state of life, they would also lose a
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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 King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: yet heavy and dull, as though the knocker had been tied up--more
like a puff than a knock.
"It must be the wind," said Gluck; "nobody else would
venture to knock double knocks at our door."
No, it wasn't the wind; there it came again very hard, and,
what was particularly astounding, the knocker seemed to be in a
hurry and not to be in the least afraid of the consequences. Gluck
went to the window, opened it, and put his head out to see who it was.
It was the most extraordinary-looking little gentleman he had
ever seen in his life. He had a very large nose, slightly brass-
colored; his cheeks were very round and very red, and might have
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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 Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: longs to attain to their peace by renunciation, longs for
Nirvana; "then, when one comes out again into the hot sunshine
that warms one's blood, and sees the eager hurrying faces of men
and women in the street, dramatic faces over which the disturbing
experiences of life have passed and left their symbols, one's
heart thrills up into one's throat. No, no, no, a thousand times
no! how can one deliberately renounce this coloured, unquiet,
fiery human life of the earth?" And, all the time, her subtle
criticism is alert, and this woman of the East marvels at the
women of the West, "the beautiful worldly women of the West,"
whom she sees walking in the Cascine, "taking the air so
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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 Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: dreadfully strong. It makes me
sneeze," said Tom Kitten.
He squeezed through the hole in
the wall and dragged himself along a
most uncomfortably tight passage
where there was scarcely any light.
He groped his way carefully for
several yards; he was at the back of
the skirting board in the attic, where
there is a little mark * in the picture.
All at once he fell head over heels in
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