| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: "Huh!" Annixter had growled to himself, "that pip Delaney. Seems
now that I'm to act as go-between for 'em. Well, maybe that
feemale girl gets this letter, and then, again, maybe she don't."
But suddenly his attention was diverted. Directly opposite the
Post Office, upon the corner of the street, stood quite the best
business building of which Bonneville could boast. It was built
of Colusa granite, very solid, ornate, imposing. Upon the heavy
plate of the window of its main floor, in gold and red letters,
one read the words: "Loan and Savings Bank of Tulare County." It
was of this bank that S. Behrman was president. At the street
entrance of the building was a curved sign of polished brass,
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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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: from the first one. Life! How many there were! There were three dozzing
at least. And she held it up to the light.
Mrs. Stubbs sat in an arm-chair, leaning very much to one side. There was
a look of mild astonishment on her large face, and well there might be.
For though the arm-chair stood on a carpet, to the left of it, miraculously
skirting the carpet-border, there was a dashing water-fall. On her right
stood a Grecian pillar with a giant fern-tree on either side of it, and in
the background towered a gaunt mountain, pale with snow.
"It is a nice style, isn't it?" shouted Mrs. Stubbs; and Alice had just
screamed "Sweetly" when the roaring of the Primus stove died down, fizzled
out, ceased, and she said "Pretty" in a silence that was frightening.
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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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: hadn't she, that at this hour she might naturally expect to find
Shluker still in his shop? That was why she had come so early - since
she had not cared to come in full daylight. Well, if that light meant
anything, he was there.
She felt her pulse quicken perceptibly as she crossed the courtyard,
and reached the shop. The door was open, and she stepped inside.
It was a dingy place, filthy, and littered, without the slightest
attempt at order, with a heterogeneous collection of, it seemed,
every article one could think of, from scraps of old iron and bundles
of rags to cast-off furniture that was in an appalling state of
dissolution. The light, that of a single and dim incandescent, came
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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 Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: white wild roses waving midway against the precipice.
'They can not understand that there can be any higher plane of
intercourse between us than the one they know. They won't see--they
can't see--that the satisfaction we find in being together is of a
different nature.'
'I see,' said Madeline. She had raised her eyes, and they sought
the solemn lines of the horizon. She looked as if she saw something
infinitely lifted above the pettiness he retailed to her.
'So they say--good God, why should I tell you what they say!' It
suddenly flashed upon him that the embodiment of it in words would
be at once, from him, sacrilegious and ludicrous. It flashed upon
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