| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: crime, but have not sufficient strength of character to keep it to
themselves without suffering terribly in the process. So, although
Castanier had made up his mind to reap the fruits of a crime which was
already half executed, he hesitated to carry out his designs. For him,
as for many men of mixed character in whom weakness and strength are
equally blended, the least trifling consideration determines whether
they shall continue to lead blameless lives or become actively
criminal. In the vast masses of men enrolled in Napoleon's armies
there are many who, like Castanier, possessed the purely physical
courage demanded on the battlefield, yet lacked the moral courage
which makes a man as great in crime as he could have been in virtue.
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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 Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: Prussian lines, by Jove! and have had a drink out of their guns.
"It was not Trochu, but Saint Genevieve, who was required in
Paris, and I remember a little anecdote of the war which proves
that we are capable of everything in the presence of a woman.
"I was a captain, a simple captain, at the time, and was in
command of a detachment of scouts who were retreating through a
district swarming with Prussians. We were surrounded, pursued,
tired out, and half dead with fatigue and hunger, and by the next
day we had to reach Bar-sur-Tain; otherwise we should be done
for, cut off from the main body and killed. I do not know how we
managed to escape so far. However, we had ten leagues to go
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