| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: barring lovely woman; I have a great author in the person of the
Doctor - '
'Gotthold!' cried Otto.
'It appears,' said the Doctor bitterly, 'that we must go together.
Your Highness had not calculated upon that.'
'What do you infer?' cried Otto; 'that I had you arrested?'
'The inference is simple,' said the Doctor.
'Colonel Gordon,' said the Prince, 'oblige me so far, and set me
right with Herr von Hohenstockwitz.'
'Gentlemen,' said the Colonel, 'you are both arrested on the same
warrant in the name of the Princess Seraphina, acting regent,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: openly avowed his sympathy for Napoleon, now that the death of that
great man put an end to the laws enacted against "the partisans of the
usurper." Fleury, ex-captain of a regiment of the line under the
Emperor, a tall, dark, handsome fellow, was now, in addition to his
civil-service post, box-keeper at the Cirque-Olympique. Bixiou never
ventured on tormenting Fleury, for the rough trooper, who was a good
shot and clever at fencing, seemed quite capable of extreme brutality
if provoked. An ardent subscriber to "Victoires et Conquetes," Fleury
nevertheless refused to pay his subscription, though he kept and read
the copies, alleging that they exceeded the number proposed in the
prospectus. He adored Monsieur Rabourdin, who had saved him from
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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 Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: coldness of the water. Why should he delay? Here, where he
was now, let him drop the curtain, let him seek the ineffable
refuge, let him lie down with all races and generations of men in
the house of sleep. It was easy to say, easy to do. To stop
swimming: there was no mystery in that, if he could do it. Could
he? And he could not. He knew it instantly. He was aware
instantly of an opposition in his members, unanimous and
invincible, clinging to life with a single and fixed resolve,
finger by finger, sinew by sinew; something that was at once he
and not he--at once within and without him;--the shutting of some
miniature valve in his brain, which a single manly thought
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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 Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: on the lieutenant's shoulder.
On deck they found the men had broken into the spirit-room, and
were fast getting drunk.
"My men," said the Captain, "there is no sense in this. The ship
is going down, you will tell me, in ten minutes: well, and what
then? To the philosophic eye, there is nothing new in our
position. All our lives long, we may have been about to break a
blood-vessel or to be struck by lightning, not merely in ten
minutes, but in ten seconds; and that has not prevented us from
eating dinner, no, nor from putting money in the Savings Bank. I
assure you, with my hand on my heart, I fail to comprehend your
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