| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: was already half past three in the afternoon.
We dressed sullenly and in ill spirits, each accusing
the other of oversleeping. Harris said if we had brought
the courier along, as we ought to have done, we should
not have missed these sunrises. I said he knew very well
that one of us would have to sit up and wake the courier;
and I added that we were having trouble enough to take
care of ourselves, on this climb, without having to take
care of a courier besides.
During breakfast our spirits came up a little, since we
found by this guide-book that in the hotels on the summit
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: po stman, who uttered a deep prolonged "h-h-h" at every breath.
From time to time there was a sound like a creaking wheel in his
throat, and his twitching foot rustled against the bag.
Savely fidgeted under the quilt and looked round slowly. His wife
was sitting on the stool, and with her hands pressed against her
cheeks was gazing at the postman's face. Her face was immovable,
like the face of some one frightened and astonished.
"Well, what are you gaping at?" Savely whispered angrily.
"What is it to you? Lie down!" answered his wife without taking
her eyes off the flaxen head.
Savely angrily puffed all the air out of his chest and turned
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: vanished.
In the shade of the tent, formed of the canvas across two posts, lay three
white men, whose work it was to watch the pots and guard the camp. They
were all three Colonial Englishmen, and lay on the ground on their
stomachs, passing the time by carrying on a desultory conversation, or
taking a few whiffs, slowly, and with care, from their pipes, for tobacco
was precious in the camp.
Under some bushes a few yards off lay a huge trooper, whose nationality was
uncertain, but who was held to hail from some part of the British Isles,
and who had travelled round the world. He was currently reported to have
done three years' labour for attempted rape in Australia, but nothing
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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 Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: I am lonely. Mine own people do not care for me, John Carter;
I am too unlike them. It is a sad fate, since I must live
my life amongst them, and I often wish that I were a true
green Martian woman, without love and without hope; but I
have known love and so I am lost.
"I promised to tell you my story, or rather the story of
my parents. From what I have learned of you and the ways
of your people I am sure that the tale will not seem strange
to you, but among green Martians it has no parallel within
the memory of the oldest living Thark, nor do our legends
hold many similar tales.
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