| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: in foreign countries or on the field of battle is outside of our--"
"Then what are you insuring? Nothing at all!" cried Margaritis. "My
bank, my Territorial Bank, rested upon--"
"Nothing at all?" exclaimed Gaudissart, interrupting the good-man.
"Nothing at all? What do you call sickness, and afflictions, and
poverty, and passions? Don't go off on exceptional points."
"No, no! no points," said the lunatic.
"Now, what's the result of all this?" cried Gaudissart. "To you, a
banker, I can sum up the profits in a few words. Listen. A man lives;
he has a future; he appears well; he lives, let us say, by his art; he
wants money; he tries to get it,--he fails. Civilization withholds
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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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: difficulties now that both he and I were under lock and key."
The plutocracy of the town being thus gathered in the little
room at the militia-house, their wives came, timorously at first, and
chattered through the windows. My informant, being
unmarried, sent word to two or three of his friends, in order
that he might not be the only one without some one to talk
with outside. The noise was something prodigious, and the
head of the militia finally ran out into the street and arrested
one of the women, but was so discomfited when she
removed her shawl and he recognized her as his hostess at a
house where he had been billeted as a soldier that he
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