| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Give it as heavy or as light a name
As any there is that fits. I see myself
Without the power to swear to this or that
That I might be if he had been without it.
Whatever I might have been that I was not,
It only happened that it wasn't so.
Meanwhile, you might seem to be listening:
If you forget yourself and go to sleep,
My treasure, I shall not say this again.
Look up once more into my poor old face,
Where you see beauty, or the Lord knows what,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: she was talkative, for she had unfortunately too few ideas, and did
not know enough phrases to converse readily. But she believed she was
accomplishing one of the social duties enjoined by religion, which
orders us to make ourselves agreeable to our neighbor. This obligation
cost her so much that she consulted her director, the Abbe Couturier,
upon the subject of this honest but puerile civility. In spite of the
humble remark of his penitent, confessing the inward labor of her mind
in finding anything to say, the old priest, rigid on the point of
discipline, read her a passage from Saint-Francois de Sales on the
duties of women in society, which dwelt on the decent gayety of pious
Christian women, who were bound to reserve their sternness for
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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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: their language, their policy, and even their religion.
Is it else to be conceived, corporal, continued my uncle Toby, rising up in
his sentry-box, as he began to warm in this part of his discourse--how
Marlborough could have marched his army from the banks of the Maes to
Belburg; from Belburg to Kerpenord--(here the corporal could sit no longer)
from Kerpenord, Trim, to Kalsaken; from Kalsaken to Newdorf; from Newdorf
to Landenbourg; from Landenbourg to Mildenheim; from Mildenheim to
Elchingen; from Elchingen to Gingen; from Gingen to Balmerchoffen; from
Balmerchoffen to Skellenburg, where he broke in upon the enemy's works;
forced his passage over the Danube; cross'd the Lech--push'd on his troops
into the heart of the empire, marching at the head of them through
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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 Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: interesting."
"You go fast in friendship," she said, in a grave voice which made
d'Arthez extremely uneasy.
The conversation changed; the hour was late, and the poor man of
genius went away contrite for having seemed curious, and for wounding
the sensitive heart of that rare woman who had so strangely suffered.
As for her, she had passed her life in amusing herself with men, and
was another Don Juan in female attire, with this difference: she would
certainly not have invited the Commander to supper, and would have got
the better of any statue.
It is impossible to continue this tale without saying a word about the
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