| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: necessity to cope with the emergencies and dangers of savage
primeval life.
Along the bank we had just quitted, a score of lions paced
to and fro, growling menacingly. We could not return, and
we struck out for the opposite shore. I am a strong
swimmer, and had no doubt as to my ability to cross the
river, but I was not so sure about Victory, so I swam close
behind her, to be ready to give her assistance should she
need it.
She did not, however, reaching the opposite bank as fresh,
apparently, as when she entered the water. Victory is a
Lost Continent |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: luck?" he said aloud.
"I'll show you Florentine's place to-night. My Dulcinea only earns
fifty francs a month at the theatre," added Giroudeau, "but she is
very prettily set up, thanks to an old silk dealer named Cardot, who
gives her five hundred francs a month."
"Well, but--?" exclaimed the jealous Philippe.
"Bah!" said Giroudeau; "true love is blind."
When the play was over Giroudeau took Philippe to Mademoiselle
Florentine's appartement, which was close to the theatre, in the rue
de Crussol.
"We must behave ourselves," said Giroudeau. "Florentine's mother is
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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 Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: apply for patients--in my time they were applied to.) I apply to
you to come and hear that you are in evil case; that what
deserves your attention most in the last thing to gain it; that
you know not good from evil, and are in short a hapless wretch; a
fine way to apply! though unless the words of the Philosopher
affect you thus, speaker and speech are alike dead.
CXXI
A Philosopher's school is a Surgery: pain, not pleasure, you
should have felt therein. For on entering none of you is whole.
One has a shoulder out of joint, another an abscess: a third
suffers from an issue, a fourth from pains in the head. And am I
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
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 Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: fervent adherents were raised up to the new regime. A
Revolution supported by the gratification of acquired appetites
is bound to be powerful. The Third Estate, which had supplanted
the nobles, and the peasants, who had bought the national
domains, would readily understand that the restoration of the
ancien regime would despoil them of all their advantages.
The energetic defence of the Revolution was merely the defence of
their own fortunes.
This is why we see, during part of the Revolution, nearly half
the departments vainly rising against the despotism that crushed
them. The Republicans triumphed over all opposition. They were
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