The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: paying with a great deal of bloodshed for the right of quarreling, as
you do, over crazy ideas?"
"Then you approve of despotism?" said the physician.
"Why should I not approve of a system of government which, by
depriving us of books and odious politics, leaves men entirely to us?"
"I had thought that the Italians were more patriotic," said the
Frenchman.
Massimilla laughed so slyly that her interlocutor could not
distinguish mockery from serious meaning, nor her real opinion from
ironical criticism.
"Then you are not a liberal?" said he.
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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 Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: not get help, but just as often as I would pray, that unseen hand
was felt on my throat and my breath squeezed off. Finally
something said: 'Venture on the atonement, for you will die
anyway if you don't.' So I made one final struggle to call on
God for mercy, with the same choking and strangling, determined
to finish the sentence of prayer for Mercy, if I did strangle and
die, and the last I remember that time was falling back on the
ground with the same unseen hand on my throat. I don't know how
long I lay there or what was going on. None of my folks were
present. When I came to myself, there were a crowd around me
praising God. The very heavens seemed to open and pour down rays
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