| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: a prayer, printed in letters of gold and framed. Flowers exhaled their
perfume faintly; the candles cast a tender light; all was calm and
pure and sacred. The dreamy thoughts of Juana, but above all Juana
herself, had communicated to all things her own peculiar charm; her
soul appeared to shine there, like the pearl in its matrix. Juana,
dressed in white, beautiful with naught but her own beauty, laying
down her rosary to answer love, might have inspired respect, even in a
Montefiore, if the silence, if the night, if Juana herself had not
seemed so amorous. Montefiore stood still, intoxicated with an unknown
happiness, possibly that of Satan beholding heaven through a rift of
the clouds which form its enclosure.
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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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: They had not spared her!
Her lips firmed suddenly, as she listened. The stealthy footfall
had not paused in the hall below. It was on the short, ladder-like
steps now, leading up here to the garret - and now it had halted
outside her door, and there came a low, insistent knocking on the
panels.
"Who's dere?" demanded Rhoda Gray, alias Gypsy Nan, in a grumbling
tone, as, getting up from the bed, she moved the chair noiselessly
a few feet farther away, so that the bed would be beyond the
immediate radius of the candle light. Then she shuffled across the
floor to the door. "Who's dere?" she demanded again, and her hand,
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Madam, your penance done, throw off this sheet,
And go we to attire you for our journey.
DUCHESS.
My shame will not be shifted with my sheet;
No, it will hang upon my richest robes
And show itself, attire me how I can.
Go, lead the way; I long to see my prison.
[Exeunt.]
ACT III.
SCENE I. The Abbey at Bury St. Edmund's.
[Sound a sennet. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, CARDINAL
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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 Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: ings in this county--to set our faces against it.
I tell you--"
"Is that all you've got to say to us, colonel?"
The question come out of a group that had drawed
nearer together whilst the colonel was talking.
They was tired of listening to talk and arguments,
and showed it.
The colonel stopped speaking short when they
flung that question at him. His face changed.
He turned serious all over. And he let loose jest
one word:
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