| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: I have more to say to you when I have conducted you to the
presence of the ladies, the best judges and best rewarders of
deeds of chivalry."
The Knight of the Leopard bowed assent.
"And thou, princely Saladin, wilt also attend them. I promise
thee our Queen will not think herself welcome, if she lacks the
opportunity to thank her royal host for her most princely
reception."
Saladin bent his head gracefully, but declined the invitation.
"I must attend the wounded man," he said. "The leech leaves not
his patient more than the champion the lists, even if he be
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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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: my word of honor we would let you alone to take care of yourselves,
you men! However, if you are going away to-morrow we won't talk of
disagreeable things,--that would be silly."
The coach stopped before a pretty house, newly built in the Rue
d'Artois, where Gaudissart and Jenny climbed to the fourth story. This
was the abode of Mademoiselle Jenny Courand, commonly reported to be
privately married to the illustrious Gaudissart, a rumor which that
individual did not deny. To maintain her supremacy, Jenny kept him to
the performance of innumerable small attentions, and threatened
continually to turn him off if he omitted the least of them. She now
ordered him to write to her from every town, and render a minute
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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 Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: by it; and from that single trait I knew his character as
perfectly, and could rely upon it as firmly, as if he had served me
with fidelity for seven years.
MON SEIGNEUR! cried the master of the hotel; but recollecting
himself as he made the exclamation, he instantly changed the tone
of it. - If Monsieur, said he, has not a passport (APPAREMMENT) in
all likelihood he has friends in Paris who can procure him one. -
Not that I know of, quoth I, with an air of indifference. - Then
CERTES, replied he, you'll be sent to the Bastile or the Chatelet
AU MOINS. - Poo! said I, the King of France is a good natur'd soul:
- he'll hurt nobody. - CELA N'EMPECHE PAS, said he - you will
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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 Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Give the thing a little air and it will vanish into ashes.
There you are -- piff! presto!"
"When I came into this room,
It seemed as if I saw the place, and you there at your table,
As you are now at this moment, for the last time in my life;
And I told myself before I came to find you, `I shall tell him,
If I can, what I have learned of him since I became his wife.'
And if you say, as I've no doubt you will before I finish,
That you have tried unceasingly, with all your might and main,
To teach me, knowing more than I of what it was I needed,
Don't think, with all you may have thought, that you have tried in vain;
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