| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: make my bed, clean my shoes, brush my clothes, sweep the room, and
make ready my breakfast, before going to her day's work of turning the
handle of a machine, at which hard drudgery she earned five-pence. Her
husband, a cabinetmaker, made four francs a day at his trade; but as
they had three children, it was all that they could do to gain an
honest living. Yet I have never met with more sterling honesty than in
this man and wife. For five years after I left the quarter, Mere
Vaillant used to come on my birthday with a bunch of flowers and some
oranges for me--she that had never a sixpence to put by! Want had
drawn us together. I never could give her more than a ten-franc piece,
and often I had to borrow the money for the occasion. This 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 Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: "If it hadn't been for the steel cross at Miss
Swaffer's belt he would not, he confessed, have
known whether he was in a Christian country at
all. He used to cast stealthy glances at it, and feel
comforted. There was nothing here the same as in
his country! The earth and the water were differ-
ent; there were no images of the Redeemer by the
roadside. The very grass was different, and the
trees. All the trees but the three old Norway pines
on the bit of lawn before Swaffer's house, and
these reminded him of his country. He had been
 Amy Foster |