| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: consulting his uncle, Octave had lately sold an estate belonging to
him to the Black Band.[*] The chateau de Villaines would have been
pulled down were it not for the remonstrances which the old uncle made
to the representatives of the "Pickaxe company." To increase the old
man's wrath, a distant relative (one of those cousins of small means
and much astuteness about whom shrewd provincials are wont to remark,
"No lawsuits for me with him!") had, as it were by accident, come to
visit Monsieur de Bourbonne, and INCIDENTALLY informed him of his
nephew's ruin. Monsieur Octave de Camps, he said, having wasted his
means on a certain Madame Firmiani, was now reduced to teaching
mathematics for a living, while awaiting his uncle's death, not daring
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: towards seven o'clock, a man came with a message from Saint
Laurent du Pont; it was a serious case, and M. Benassis was
urgently needed. He said to me, 'I shall have to go, though I
never care to set out on horseback when I have hardly digested my
dinner, more especially when it is as cold as this. It is enough
to kill a man!'
"For all that, he went. At nine o'clock the postman Goguelat,
brought a letter for M. Benassis. Jacquotte was tired out, for it
was her washing-day. She gave me the letter and went off to bed.
She begged me to keep a good fire in our bedroom, and to have some
tea ready for M. Benassis when he came in, for I am still sleeping
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: facts? Who, but God?
Then truth is as much larger than fiction, as God is greater than
man; as much larger as the whole universe is larger than the
little corner of it that any man, even the greatest poet or
philosopher, can see; and as much grander, and as much more
beautiful, and as much more strange. For one is the whole, and
the other is one, a few tiny scraps of the whole. The one is the
work of God; the other is the work of man. Be sure that no man
can ever fancy anything strange, unexpected, and curious, without
finding if he had eyes to see, a hundred things around his feet
more strange, more unexpected, more curious, actually ready-made
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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 Mother by Owen Wister: a message. 'Wants 500 preferred does he? Buyer 30? Very well, he can't
have it. Say so from me. Now,' he resumed to me, 'take a cigar by the
way. And don't buy any more Petunias until I tell you the right moment.
Do you see where your Amalgamated Electric has gone to?'"
"I had seen this. It had scored a 20-point rise since my purchase of it;
and I felt very sorry that I had not taken Mr. Beverly's advice and
bought a thousand shares. It had been on a day when I had felt
unaccountably cautious, and I had taken only two hundred and fifty shares
of Amalgamated Electric. There are days when one is cautious and days
when one is venturesome; and they seem to have nothing to do with
results."
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