| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: white mantle all his imitative preparations, he recognized the
Beresina. This false Russia was so terribly truthful, that several of
his army comrades recognized the scene of their past misery at once.
Monsieur de Sucy took care to keep secret the motive for this tragic
imitation, which was talked of in several Parisian circles as a proof
of insanity.
Early in January, 1820, the colonel drove in a carriage, the very
counterpart of the one in which he had driven the Comte and Comtesse
de Vandieres from Moscow to Studzianka. The horses, too, were like
those he had gone, at the peril of his life, to fetch from the Russian
outposts. He himself wore the soiled fantastic clothing, the same
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: of children, in which you also were trained? Were not the laws, which have
the charge of education, right in commanding your father to train you in
music and gymnastic?' Right, I should reply. 'Well then, since you were
brought into the world and nurtured and educated by us, can you deny in the
first place that you are our child and slave, as your fathers were before
you? And if this is true you are not on equal terms with us; nor can you
think that you have a right to do to us what we are doing to you. Would
you have any right to strike or revile or do any other evil to your father
or your master, if you had one, because you have been struck or reviled by
him, or received some other evil at his hands?--you would not say this?
And because we think right to destroy you, do you think that you have any
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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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: convey him with all speed and quiet out of Bridgwater. Feversham shall
send a troop to await me a mile or so from the town on the road to
Weston Zoyland. We shall join them with our captive, and thus convey
him to the Royalist General. Could aught be simpler or more infallible?"
Richard had slipped from the table. He had changed his mind on the
subject of the importance of the business Blake had in view. Excited by
it, he clapped his friend on the back approvingly.
"A great plan!" he cried. "Is it not, Ruth?"
"It should be the means of saving hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives,"
said she, "and so it deserves to prosper. But what of the officers who
may be with the Duke?" she inquired.
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Helen Vincula, I want to give you a ticket to carry you away to the
high mountain, and I want you to go to stay a month in my house on
the mountain, and I want you to carry this little sick girl with
you. And when you are there, Sister Helen Vincula, my bread-man
will bring you bread, and my milk-man will bring you milk, and my
market-man from the cove will bring you apples and eggs, and all the
rest of the good things that come up the mountain from the warm
caves.''
``For,'' the Only-Just-Lady said, ``I want this little sick girl to
grow well again, and I want her little arms and legs and fingers to
get round and pink again.''
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