| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: all the workmen who assisted in pulling down the Abbey Saint-Martin
had died in six months; that a certain prefect, under orders from
Bonaparte, had done his best to damage the towers of Saint-Gatien,--
with a hundred other absurd tales.
But on this occasion poor Birotteau felt he was tongue-tied, and he
resigned himself to eat a meal without engaging in conversation. After
a while, however, the thought crossed his mind that silence was
dangerous for his digestion, and he boldly remarked, "This coffee is
excellent."
That act of courage was completely wasted. Then, after looking at the
scrap of sky visible above the garden between the two buttresses of
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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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: my home lay in his way, and he could at once relieve his
conscience of a very trifling pressure and his pocket of a small
package, by calling upon me. His story was told in a few words;
the package was placed upon my table, and I was again left to my
meditations.
Two or three days before, a man who had the appearance of a "tramp"
had been observed by the people of a small village in the
neighborhood. He stopped and looked at the houses in a vacant way,
walked back and forth once or twice as if uncertain which of the
cross-roads to take, and presently went on without begging or even
speaking to any one. Towards sunset a farmer, on his way to the
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